← Rail Island

Comparisons

Rail Island next to the games you already know

Most people who find Rail Island have built something in OpenTTD, Transport Fever, Mashinky, NIMBY Rails, Cities: Skylines or Railroad Tycoon first. These pages say plainly where Rail Island is like them, where it is not, and which of them is the better choice for what you actually want to do.

All seven games, side by side

Side by side What you can run How you build Towns and cities Money and economy Where it runs
Rail Island Trains, buses, trams, ships, aircraft, cable cars (~350 vehicles) Free-angle curves, no grid Placed and generated by you No economy — a sandbox Browser (desktop + mobile), free; also on Roblox
OpenTTD Official OpenTTD website ↗ Trains, road vehicles, ships, aircraft Tile grid, 45° track Simulated, grow with service Full economy: cargo, loans, AI rivals Free desktop download; Windows, macOS, Linux
Transport Fever 2 Official Transport Fever website ↗ Trains, trams, buses, trucks, ships, aircraft Free-form, no grid Simulated, grow and re-zone Production chains, running costs, campaign Paid: PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox
Mashinky Official Mashinky website ↗ Trains, buses, trucks Square grid, isometric Simulated, grow with service Token economy across seven eras Paid, Steam, Windows only, Early Access
NIMBY Rails Official NIMBY Rails website ↗ Rail only — tram to high-speed Free-form on the real world; no terraforming Real cities from map data, not simulated Fares, costs, simulated passengers Paid, Steam, Windows + Linux, Early Access
Cities: Skylines Official Cities: Skylines website ↗ Buses, trams, metro, trains, monorail, ferries, cable cars Freehand roads, grid-snapped zoning The whole game — fully simulated Taxes, budget, loans, bankruptcy Paid; CS1 on PC/Mac/Linux + consoles, CS2 Windows only
Railroad Tycoon (II / 3) Official Railroad Tycoon website ↗ Trains only Dragged over terrain; grades cost money Simulated, demand-driven Full business sim with a stock market Paid, Steam and GOG, Windows, decades old

The short version — every game against the same five questions. Each comparison page takes them further. Rail Island is not affiliated with any of the games on this page, and nothing here is written on their behalf. Everything said about them was checked against their own sites and store pages in September 2026; games change, so if something here has gone out of date, write to info@railisland.com and it will be corrected.

See the difference yourself

Rail Island opens in a browser tab. No download, no account needed to look around, and the first curve takes about ten seconds.

Play free