You're a transportation manager in this game. You choose your starting landscape (Europe, toy land, South America, desert) and your skill level. In this game you can build different transportation lines, like transporting coal to a coal power plant, or oil from the oil wells to the oil refinery. There exist ships, trains, buses & trucks, helicopters and trains. The game has an isometric graphics engine and a jazz-style soundtrack.

The Deluxe version contains new features that were not present in the original Transport Tycoon: the time scale of the game became larger, including futuristic vehicles such as monorails; and the editor is much more advanced, allowing you to create entire maps with terrain and cities positioned the way you like. Also, there are some new scenery themes, such as snowy and desert areas.