Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train takes the gameplay of the Ticket to Ride series and adapts it for a younger audience.

Generally, players collect float cards, claim routes on the map and try to connect locations such as the Mad Professor's Lab, the Gingerbread House and the Derelict Barn shown on their tickets. In more detail, the game board shows a map of a city with certain locations connected by colored paths. Each player starts with four colored floats in hand and two cards; each ticket shows two locations and you try to connect those two locations with a contiguous route of your trains to complete the ticket.

On a turn, you either draw two float cards from the deck or discard your float cards to claim a route between two locations by placing your ghost trains on them; this last option requires you to discard cards that match the color and number of spaces on that route (for example, two yellow cards for a yellow route that is two spaces long). If you connect the two locations on a card with a route of your trains, show the card, place it face up in front of you and then draw a new card. (If you can't connect locations on either card because the paths are blocked, you can take your entire turn discarding those cards and drawing two new ones.)

If you make a route all the way from the Dark Forest region to the Seashore region, you will receive the "trick or treat" bonus.