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Worldwide Rail Network Map
- kposehn 4y agoAlways love this when it comes up on HN. There are some inaccuracies that only a total train nerd such as myself would find (or care about) but those do nothing to detract from how good it is :)
- timeon 4y agoCould those inaccuracies be edited through OpenStreetMap?
- playingalong 4y agoYes. ORWM takes directly from OSM
- jumelles 4y agoFix them! https://www.openstreetmap.org/ https://www.openstreetmap.org/
- BashiBazouk 4y agoI can't vouch for the rest of the lines but I am impressed the local small line that borders my property is on there.
- stereo 4y agoA detailed map of the world's railway infrastructure, built on OpenStreetMap data.
- el_don_almighty 4y agoThis is one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time. I can't believe the time I've wasted looking at all the old rail lines and where they go from the places I've lived. Many thanks to the team
- whydoyoucare 4y agoGreat stuff! I tried zooming in to some of the dense Indian railway networks and surprisingly it has a very good amount of detail.
- neogodless 4y agoSome historical discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15965912 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15965912 (Dec 20, 2017) 58 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29950286 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29950286 (Jan 15, 2022) 15 comments
- detritus 4y agoCrikey, the Beeching review really did change Britain's rail infrastructure... .
- jamiek88 4y agoIt’s so sad.
- qwezxcrty 4y agoA bit confusing as it somehow includes metro lines in China that are still in construction or even only planned, and it seem there is no way to filter them out.
- harry-wood 4y agoIf you can pinpoint the data in OpenStreetMap we could try to figure out if this is something wrong in the map data (Anyone can fix it!), or maybe it's a tag they should be filtering out on the OpenRailwayMap rendering.
- qwezxcrty 4y agoHmmm, the specific case I was looking at is the North extension of Nanchang Metro Line 1 to 昌北机场. Which doesn't exist yet. I'll also have a look myself tomorrow.
- abbusfoflouotne 4y agoLived in Barcelona for two summers, loved going back over the metro lines (one of the best things about the city imho) and looking at all my favorite places. Excellent detail!!
- sdoering 4y agoNot far from the place where I live there is a small railroad in an old bog. It is not connected to any major railroad line. Just a tourist attraction. And available in the map. I am thrilled.
- jumelles 4y agoPowered by OpenStreetMap!
- mempko 4y agoChina is impressive. USA not so much...
- bill38 4y agoCorsica railway is missing :( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemins_de_fer_de_la_Corse https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemins_de_fer_de_la_Corse
- jumelles 4y agoZoom in
- 11thEarlOfMar 4y agoAlmost on topic... When we were kids, my brother studied a railroad atlas any time he wasn't in school or church. This thing was a monster, large book with hundreds of pages of maps. Literally county by county across the Unites States, all railroad lines and yards. I'd go to sleep Friday night while he sat in an overstuffed chair, studying. I'd wake up at 7:30 AM Saturday... he hadn't moved. Still there, a few pages further into the atlas. As an adult, he worked for the Illinois Central as a hump yard operator. Later the Iowa Pacific, and ultimately found himself doing customer service for a small line in Texas, mainly shipping sand. His job frequently included finding 'lost' cars somewhere in the US, on any line that happened to be in that car's route. He was really good at it. One notable call had him searching railroad yards in Missouri. He had a strong hunch that the misplaced car was on a spur where that yard stored cars that had lost their way. But he needed to confirm. He could have called that yard, but getting the right person to check logs or go hunt was always a hassle. So... He Googled up the yard, zoomed in on the spur and noted that Google helpfully displayed several businesses in a strip mall backed up to the spur. He dialed up 'Patty's Nail Salon' and the call went something like: "Hi Patty, this is Craig with the Iowa Pacific. I'm tracking down a misplaced car and I have reason to believe it is sitting on the spur outside your back window. Would you mind checking for a car with ID 123876?" Extended pause.... "I'll be right back!" Sure enough, there is was.
- quarterdime 4y agoIs your brother still in the industry? If so, what are his thoughts about the current working conditions and the possible strike beginning Friday?
- nonethewiser 4y agoWhat exactly was he studying? What you describe is pretty intense and sounds more involved than looking with intrigue. Was he memorizing names? Routes? Charting different paths?
- 11thEarlOfMar 4y agoYes. We used to drive cross-country twice a year. Any time, day or night, if we encountered a rail line, he knew what rail line it was, what town was upline to the left and what town was upline to the right. He literally memorized that atlas.
- harry-wood 4y agoThere's another site called https://openstationmap.org/ https://openstationmap.org/ which shows some details within train stations in a fun 3D way, letting you flip through the "levels" data (Again, all data from OpenStreetMap). I feel like these two could combine nicely somehow.
- mqus 4y agoI didn't know that site, thanks! But I have to note that those stations are missing pretty basic and crucial information like platform numbers. I probably won't be using those maps anytime soon.
- jabroni_salad 4y agohuh, so there is a line between des moines and minneapolis. Just no passenger service :(
- eherot 4y agoYou will find this to be a common theme across most of the country
- always2slow 4y agoIs there anything like this but for fiber optic?
- nerdkid93 4y agoThere's this, but it doesn't appear to be fully complete: https://www.infrapedia.com/app https://www.infrapedia.com/app
- always2slow 4y agoThis is a good start, thanks for sharing!
- jhugo 4y agoFor undersea cables, TeleGeography's map is a great source: https://www.submarinecablemap.com/ https://www.submarinecablemap.com/
- always2slow 4y agoThis is a really cool map, but doesn't provide useful information for someone who wants last mile fiber. I would love to see this expanded to every fiber cable laid everywhere.
- lmm 4y agoFor a "network map" I'd hope to have something that showed which routes services ran on. An international version of that would be really cool.
- mqus 4y agodata-wise this could be possible. I know at least in Germany, there is also data in OSM about each line and which tracks they are using.
- danhor 4y agoThis is basically the transit or ÖPNVKarte layer on https://www.openstreetmap.org/ https://www.openstreetmap.org/. But that data is less complete and only shows route names at high zoom levels
- stanislavb 4y agoPoor Australia...
- mbo 4y agoI'm not sure if you're aware but the places where the rail lines (the coasts) are pretty much 80% of the Australian population. Australian rail is... not the greatest, but there is rail where people actually live.
- Grimburger 4y ago> Australian rail is... not the greatest Last time I went home I bought a 3 month NSW regional rail pass, which will also get you to Brisbane and Melbourne. Nearly 70% of my booked trips were replaced with buses. One from Sydney to Canberra ended up being 7 hours long, the train takes 3. Pretty disappointing. High Speed rail has been discussed for decades now, huge studies and inquiries, the route is basically decided, but it was always deemed "too expensive". Note that we spent 3x the cost of a 10 year Melbourne to Brisbane HSR system in 2021 on covid cash handouts.
- quickthrower2 4y agoIt is OK we have lots of toll roads
- gernb 4y agoThe Tokyo area is missing so many lines!!! .... or maybe there's just hard to see because for some reason they're in super non-contrasty colors. My guess is, whoever made this, based it on the idea that trains and subways are different things. They aren't in Japan. For example the Mirai-Line (subway), The Tokyu Tokoyo-Line (train), Eiden-Fukutoshin-line (subway), Tobu Tojo Line (train) can all share the same cars and some "cars" run all 4 lines where other cars run just their own line. I'm not sure what the definition of "subway" vs "train" is. In Japan it's certainly not "runs underground vs runs above ground". Even in NYC all the trains run for a long ways underground to get to Central or Penn station. It's also certainly not "need a harder to get ticket than just use a transit pass" as pretty all the trains lines in Japan except for a few super express trains can be ridden just by starting with the cheapest ticket you got out of a generic ticket machine and paying the difference when you get off". So for example you can ride the San-Yo line 333 miles (537km) and it's just a normal hop on, hop off train. you don't have to go to some ticket booth/kiosk and reserve a seat like you would for say an ICE train in Europe or the bullet train in Japan
- danhor 4y agoAll rail infrastructure should be mapped, even streetcar tracks. Tokyo is full of subway-like lines (in light-blue) so at first glance it doesn't seem like many are missing. This is based on OSM data, so the definition on the wiki should be used: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:railway%3Dsubway https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:railway%3Dsubway (which isn't very specific).
- bobthepanda 4y agoUsually, the distinction is equipment. “Train” usually refers to that equipment that is compatible with the larger national mainline network, which is regulated nationally so that signaling, size, and safety are consistent (e.g. two trains from different companies crashing into each other is not a disaster, they fit on each others’ tracks and stations, they can talk together on the same radio frequency and hook into the same cab signals, etc.) Metros tend to be isolated systems doing their own thing and are not easily compatible. In the most extreme case like London Underground, they are wildly different dimensions than mainline trains. Tokyo does have lines like these in its subway umbrella; the Ginza Line and Oedo Line cannot host through operations. It’s not common though, Japan is at the forefront of blending the two, which is often desirable for intraurban operations.
- wanderingmind 4y agoIf you use OsmAnd~ (F-Droid), you can use this map as an overlay (underlay) map to help navigate the train network. If you don't use OsmAnd, I strongly encourage you to use it.
- Melatonic 4y agoWhich one of these routes is Snowpiercer?
- Stratoscope 4y agoAnyone interested in this may also enjoy learning about historical railroad routes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31017135 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31017135 I posted a comment in that thread about some old SF Peninsula and South Bay routes, along with the USGS topo map page where you can discover what was in any area of the US at any particular year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31036776 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31036776 Enjoy!
- nantes 4y agoWow, the in-park "railroad" for the amusement park I grew up going to is present! https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=51.58248&lon=15.6501&zoom=3 https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=51.58248&...
- nantes 4y agoHa! And the Kansas City Zoo, too. https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=51.58248&lon=15.6501&zoom=3 https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=51.58248&...
- Grimburger 4y agoReally excited for the new line through Laos that just opened up this year. It now means you can go Singapore to London overland entirely by train. Have done Singapore to Shanghai overland, but there was a lot of terrifying busrides inbetween lines.
- jhugo 4y agoI did Singapore to Berlin overland in 2016 via the southern route (Singapore - Malaysia - Thailand - Myanmar - India (northeast) - Bangladesh - India - Pakistan - Iran - Turkey - Bulgaria - Serbia - Hungary - Slovakia - Czechia - Germany). On that route, there are only a few relatively short stretches where there's no train. I had to get local drivers across the Thai - Myanmar and Myanmar - India border, and through northeast India to the Bangladesh border, and I walked across the Iran - Turkey border as the train wasn't running. The whole rest of the route, I was on trains. The Laos train is indeed exciting. If/when China comes to their senses w.r.t Covid and Russia w.r.t invading their neighbours, it would be interesting to repeat the trip the northern way.
- Grimburger 4y agoQuite an adventure, I always assumed getting between SEA and the Middle East to be difficult, particularly Myanmar<->India but looking at the map the gaps are quite small and it seems like a better way, especially these days. I did the long way round via Cambodia/Vietnam rather than through Thailand/Sichuan province, the map says there is a train now between Hanoi and Nanning but when I went it was 10+ hours on a bus including a lengthy golf buggy ride between no-mans-land with a 18yo kid armed with an AK at the Chinese border. The bus trip between Phnom Penh and HCMC was utterly terrifying, we spent a quarter of the trip on the wrong side of the road with the driver holding down the horn to make oncoming traffic move out of the way, bigger vehicle and all that. There was an American couple trying to pay the driver to slow down but that just made him more angry. Really makes you appreciate a good sleeper train or plane.
- jhugo 4y agoMyanmar<->India is a bit tricky. When I passed through, you needed a permit to go to that part of Myanmar and to cross the border. Not long before, the border had been closed, and I think it was closed again more recently due to the situation in Myanmar. Not sure of the current border situation. The people doing the permit in Yangon were quite serious about it, but the actual border was incredibly laid back. I walked across after stamping out of Myanmar in Tamu, and the buildings on the India side of the border were all closed for the weekend, so I kept walking to Moreh and found a policeman, who went and found the immigration guy at home so that I could get stamped in.
- divbzero 4y agoI would love to see map layers for other infrastructure as well such as gas and oil pipelines, electric transmission lines, navigable waterways, or aqueducts.
- Aachen 4y agoThere are various feature maps based on the same OpenStreetMap data. I don't know any of the ones you mentioned off the top of my head, though I seem to remember a project called open infra map that might display gas pipelines (they're not that well mapped, to be fair) as well as a map for nautical use.
- njpurchio 4y agoWhy is there no railway from the lower 48 to Alaska?
- S201 4y agoWhy build a rail line when you can ship goods down the coast?
- jmpman 4y agoCan someone add a Stonehenge feature to these maps for each overpass. I want to know which day aligns with the sunset/sunrise for every railroad overpass. When the sun sets, it lights up the rails with pinks and purples. I’d love a coffee table book/calendar of railroad sunsets.
- f_allwein 4y agoGreat resource if you want to travel on any of those lines: https://www.seat61.com/ https://www.seat61.com/ has detailed information about train travel pretty much anywhere in the world.
- dougmwne 4y agoThis site is such an Old Internet gem.
- pvsukale3 4y agoIf you want to see a regularly updated map of Indian Railways you can find it here [1]. This map has a lot of contributions from users and has details about new lines, lines under upgradation, electrification status. This website can also show a route particular train takes in India fairly accurately. For example here is route map of Vivek express, covering longest distance, 4,218.6 kilometres (2,621.3 mi) in single journey [2]. [1] https://indiarailinfo.com/atlas https://indiarailinfo.com/atlas [2] https://indiarailinfo.com/train/map/route-dibrugarh-kanniyakumari-vivek-superfast-express-15906/15768/7288/1010#st https://indiarailinfo.com/train/map/route-dibrugarh-kanniyak... [2]
- psnehanshu 4y agoInteresting how apart from US, Europe, India, China (east), and Japan, the rest of the world is mostly devoid of railways.
- martopix 4y agoIs there a way to get OSM to display names in Latin characters? I was in Thailand last week and looking at this very railway map I got really frustrated because I couldn't understand anything with the Thai script.
- mqus 4y agoThis depends on the renderer/render settings. e.g. https://openstreetmap.de/karte/ https://openstreetmap.de/karte/ always shows the german names alongside, if available. But those are set by the site owner, not the user (those are not vector tiles after all)
- wdutch 4y agoThai is so inconsistently romanized you still might not understand anything! for example bangkok could be Baanggaawk.
- martopix 4y agoThat is still much much better.