Can you link up twice in one turn in Age of Steam?

Question

In the Move Goods phase are you allowed to link up twice and move no goods?

Edit: During the Move Goods phase you have the option to either 'Move a good' or 'Increase your Engine Links'. Then each other player goes and you then get a second chance to move a good. Can you choose the 'Increase Engine Link' option for both goods?

Answer 1

I have the game, and dug out the rules to clarify.

Under section 5, Move Goods, it states the following:

In ONE of the two opportunities to Move Goods, the player may instead opt to move their disk on the Engine Track up one link. The maximum number of links is still 6 links.

Therefore, you may not use the Increase Engine Link option twice, and move no goods.

Answer 2

I've played Steam rather than Age of Steam, but I think it's similar? In any case, I found this clarification on an online Age of Steam FAQ:

Q4. As mentioned in the section titled "Moving Goods", a player may forego shipment during a round in order to "increment" his engine link level. It does not specify in the rules by how many links a player may increment his engine, only that the maximum is 6 links. Can a player increment his links by more than one per round? In other words, can I go straight from a 2 link engine directly to a 6 link?

A4. You can only move your engine level up by 1 for foregoing 1 cube shipment. You are only allowed to do this once per goods movement phase. Note that the word "increment" means "To increase the amount of ONE unit". Also be aware that if you get the Engineer you can still forego a shipment in order to get a maximum upgrade of +2 on the turn as a whole.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of this ruling, but it does tally with what I seem to remember from playing Steam, that you couldn't just increase your Engine madly early on, it was a slow, gradual process. So I'd say once per goods movement phase sounds like a pretty safe bet.