Yep,i dont spend real money for the trains, i had 2 cities (lvl18 cities) who had the unwanted betatest version of the trains. They both got to 5 stations, the last one was mentioned as central station, but was reduced in rank when the gamewas introduced to the public. Since they are lvl18 cities the never will reach above 4 stations, you need to be lvl20 vitylevel for more. Mylargest city now has 4 stations, and 3 trains running. I leveled the flying sim up to level2, it now transports 48 passengers (pff) but try to get the lamaline asap, it will give you a lot of passengers.
you need either a minimum amount of passengers transported of the amount of cards (just as the war disasters) and the requirements .
dont forget to obtain the free card of a random train daily.