Roads and railways are expansive linear features that have pervasive impacts on wildlife globally. While roads have been the focus of much study in recent decades, railways have received considerably less attention. Despite a recent increased focus on railway effects on wildlife, this disparity remains. As linear transportation features, roads and railways have several similarities, most notably their impacts related to habitat fragmentation and wildlife mortality. However, despite these similarities, increasing evidence suggests that the impacts of roads and railways are not equivalent. These differences can be attributed to how roads and railways differ structurally, for example, the width, curvature, slope, and material of construction, but also in terms of the stimuli that they produce, that is, traffic volume, vibration, chemical deposition, food supplementation, noise, and light. Despite these differences, there are few studies that examine the specific effects of railways, and fewer still, that directly compare the impacts of roads and railways, which are often adjacent to one another and thus likely have interacting effects. Accordingly, efforts to mitigate the impacts of linear infrastructure are approached through a common lens, which we argue is problematic for effective wildlife management, as well as efficient use of conservation resources. Investigating the impacts of railways and how they differ from road effects is critical to effectively managing the effects of railways on wildlife populations.