by DrakeStorm
It looks like you put alot of work into this so don't take what I say too harshly (just trying to help make your variant better).The 5 8ers is a problem because you can forget about tickets and just take the 8ers and win (which is a viable strategy, but if it becomes the only winning strategy - that is not good). The logic about having 5 so everyone can get 1 is flawed - in reality someone might get 3, and 2 other players get 1, and the last 1 or 2 get none and they just lose! In Europe only 1 player can get a 8er so it's not as game disrupting. In a 2 player game it might even be more lopsided (and unfun if your opponent is matching up on colors and can take the 8ers and you can't).
From another perspective, all the 8ers are ferries so getting 2 wilds can be a problem. Maybe only 1 or 2 of the 8ers get completed, and if that is the case, the board is gonna get super crowded if you can't use the eastern ferries to get around blocks. I assume there are no stations like in Europe??
The variants seem random and thus horrible. Losing half a turn or more in TTR is bad (i.e. paying extra for tunnels, having to take a face up loco, etc.). The drawbridge you lose a full turn if you get unlucky (I have noticed on tunnels that about 50% of the time you match a color/loco), and if I'm reading it right, you might not even have the first option to use the route when the drawbridge goes down. I would never use the draw bridge if possible. Have to run the numbers, but maybe if you only flipped the top 2 cards instead of 3 it might be ok.
The rolling of the dice for the Toll Road has potential, but I don't understand - it says you roll at the beginning of the game - that makes little sense - should happen at the time you claim the route. At least here you get extra points for using more cards. Your description also isn't complete. I assume the different points is for the number of players, and the example is for a 4 player game. Not sure why the number of players should matter for the points. Also is the loco, an additional loco, or a loco instead of one of your train cards.
A bonus for having the most unplayed track is interesting, but might cause the game to drag on (i.e. I don't want to end the game because I don't want you to get the bonus, so I won't lay more track...). If you get rid of the advantage of going out quickly, the game will turn into a ticket fiending game which alot of people like, but just makes the game super random. There might be another way of doing it to avoid this problem, would have to think about it.