Tag:route=railway

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Public-images-osm logo.svg route = railway
08 tory railtrack ubt.jpeg
Description
The route of a railway (e.g. the Channel Tunnel). Not to be confused with the route of a passenger train service (see route=train). Edit this description in the wiki page. Edit this description in the data item.
Group: railways
Used on these elements
should not be used on nodesshould not be used on waysshould not be used on areasmay be used on relations
Requires
Useful combination
See also
Status: in use

This tag is used on relations which map the route of a railway line. These relations gather rail infrastructure (track) elements (usually railway=rail), often with the same name=*, usage=* and owner=* / operator=* tags.

Passenger train services which run on the railway=rail line (and connecting lines) are tagged separately using one or more route=train relations. Other (non-railway=rail) passenger rail services are denoted with route=tram, route=light_rail, route=monorail or route=subway relations.

See Railways and Train routes.

Note: do not use a railway=rail tag on this relation as this will confuse renderers.

Tagging

The ways (usually railway=rail, though less often railway=disused, railway=abandoned or railway=razed) are collected in a relation with the following tags:

Key Value Comment Example (relation 134946)
type route (mandatory) type=route
route railway (mandatory) route=railway
ref number (usually mandatory, though left empty when unknown) ref=801
name track name Name of the track (mandatory) name=KBS 801 Schlüchtern - Gemünden
operator company name Operator of the track
from station name Originating station (recommended) from=Schlüchtern
via station name Important intermediate stations
to station name Destination station (recommended) to=Gemünden

Country Specific

Germany

In Germany route=railway is used to refer to timetabled route numbers (three digit, Kursbuchstrecke referring to a route of passenger services), while route=tracks is used for VzG line numbers (four digit, unambiguous identification of a railway line).

United States

In the United States and most countries, only route=railway relations are used, there is no need for route=tracks relations. A convention with US route=railway relations is a strong intention to harmonize them by gathering elements with identical name=*, usage=*, railway=*, owner=* and operator=* tags. In the US, a route=railway could have any sort of traffic upon it and has nothing to do with specifically passenger rail service or passenger rail routes (that's all denoted in route=train relations). Contrast this with Germany, where all route=railways "already mean" a particular passenger service, denoted by three digits in the ref=* tag.

Possible tagging mistakes =

See also

  • route=tracks - Railroad track as rail infrastructure, used primarily in Germany. Not to be confused with route=train.