Railways in the United Kingdom
Mapping the railways of the United Kingdom. | |
Status | started |
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Page infrequently updated or archived This page is infrequently updated or could be considered as archived. The content may no longer be accurate or up to date. |
United Kingdom Railways is a project to map all the mainline railways in the United Kingdom. There are related projects to map the London Underground, United Kingdom trams, and independent and minor Railways.
Progress
Most railway lines are in.
Things still work checking and needing doing.
- Adding details of the number of trackes (tracks=1, track=2) etc or adding multiple parallel tracks
- Stations layout (platforms, passages, steps etc)
- Relations for Services
- Relations for historic lines
- Relations for Network Rail operating section
Mapping services
Railways are shown on most OpenStreetMap mapping layers alongside other information.
Stations
- Main article: United Kingdom railway stations
All currently operating UK mainline railway stations have been now mapped as nodes, according to a comparison of the list from Wikipedia. There is currently an effort to map the stations in more details, including the platforms and station buildings.
Train services
Please see Talk:United Kingdom railways for discussion over colour usage
Current operational train services (as distinct from historic services) should all be mapped as relations tagged as type=route and route=train. They should also be tagged as network=national or network=regional depending on things like distance travelled and time between stations. This helps distinguish the more important services and aids sensible display by the OpenStreetBrowser renderer.
Tagged services
Ref | Railway service | Operator | Route | Network | Assigned colour | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Merthyr and Vale | Barry Island > Cardiff > Merthyr Tydfil | Arriva Trains Wales | 195448![]() |
Tagged as route=light_rail. | ||
VT F | Birmingham - Scotland | Virgin Trains | 289295![]() |
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Wolverhampton | Birmingham - Wolverhampton | London Midland | 285296![]() |
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CR | Birmingham Snowhill - Marylebone | Chiltern Railways | 167209![]() |
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SN 20 | Brighton - Ashford express | Southern | 172467![]() |
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133 (GW) | Bristol - Avonmouth - Severn Beach | First Great Western | 167218![]() |
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SN 60 | Brighton-Portsmouth (semi-fast) | Southern | 174147![]() |
regional | #42816b (operator) | |
SN 4 | Brighton Express (London Victoria - Brighton) | Southern | 167474![]() |
national | #42816b (operator) | |
SN 67 | Bognor Regis - Littlehampton | Southern Railway | 173244![]() |
regional | #42816b (operator) | |
123 (GW) | Cardiff - Portsmouth | First Great Western | Route![]() |
national | #32366d (operator) | A few stops missing - may need all stops adding from scratch to keep in order. |
181 (SN) | Caterham-London Victoria | Southern | 172834![]() |
regional | #42816b (operator) | |
City | City Line | Arriva Trains Wales | 168230![]() |
Valleys | #f0af11 (route) | |
XC | Cross Country Bristol - Manchester | Arriva CrossCountry | route![]() |
national | ||
Cross-City | Cross City Redditch-Lichfield LMR | London Midland | 167785![]() |
regional | #ed1c24 (route) | |
LM | Great Malvern - Leamington Spa | London Midland | 168165![]() |
regional | #22b24c (route??) | |
LM | Great Malvern - Stratford | London Midland | 166314![]() |
regional | #22b24c (route?) | |
SN 84 | Horsham - London Victoria | Southern | 176443![]() |
regional | #42816b (operator) | |
Hope Valley | Manchester-Sheffield Hope Valley Line | Northern | Route![]() |
regional | Not sure whether to include Strines![]() | |
- | Liverpool-Nottingham-Norwich | East Midland Trains | 237133![]() |
national | Not finished yet. | |
- | Manchester Airport-Cleethorpes | First TransPennine Express | 237386![]() |
national | Work in progress | |
52 (FC): Luton - Sutton Loop | Thameslink Luton-Sutton | First Capital Connect | 168327![]() |
regional | #27abe2 (route) | |
125 (GW) | London Paddington - Bristol Temple Meads | First Great Western | 183757![]() |
national | #32366d (operator) | Paddington now re-instated. Previously someone had deleted the node's station status and didn't move the relation info! |
125 (GW) | London Paddington - South Wales | First Great Western | 166378![]() |
national | #32366d (operator) | Very incomplete (only 3 stops) |
135 (GW) | London Paddington - Penzance | First Great Western | 125414![]() |
national | #32366d (operator) | Needs stops adding. |
SN 62 | London Victoria - Eastbourne | Southern | 174288![]() |
national | #42816b (operator) | |
SW 158 | London Waterloo - Weymouth | South West Trains | 1826565![]() |
national | Incomplete and needs stops adding. | |
VT B | Manchester - London | Virgin Trains | 289293![]() |
West Coast | #eb3f94 (route) | |
North Staffordshire Line (Derby-Crewe) | East Midlands Trains | 1075201![]() |
regional | Not completed | ||
SW 81 | Portsmouth Harbour - Waterloo (fast) | South West Trains | 173090![]() |
national | #ec1b30 (operator) | |
GW 94 | Reading-Gatwick Turbo Express | First Great Western | 172989![]() |
national | #32366d (operator) | |
167 (IL) | Ryde - Shanklin | Island Line Trains | 167489![]() |
regional | #ec1b30 (operator) | Complete |
SN 42 | "Seaford Flyer": Brighton - Lewes - Seaford | Southern | 172464![]() |
regional | #42816b (operator) | |
Chase | Walsall - Wolverhampton | London Midland | 285323![]() |
regional | #00aeef (route) | |
SN 65 | West Worthing - Brighton (all stations) | Southern | 173240![]() |
regional | #42816b (operator) | |
VT A | Wolverhampton - London | Virgin Trains | 164889![]() |
West Coast | #945436 (route) |
Lines
See List of UK railway lines for names of railway lines.
New Lines (Proposed and Under Construction)
Sources
The data can come from GPS traces submitted to OpenStreetMap (try searching the traces page for train, railway or rail), or from NPE Maps or landsat imagery. When tracing from NPE/landsat, do not use copyright sources to figure out if the line is still there or not. Instead, either use local knowledge, or other compatible map sources such as the OS Opendata
Surveying by train
Trains known to permit GPS reception
Unless otherwise specified, you'll need your GPS to be by the window on these trains to get a good lock.
- Turbostars (170/168), Turbos (165/166), Sprinters (15x), Pacers (14x) - used on non-electrified regional routes.
- Wessex Electrics (442)
- Slamdoor electric
- High Speed Train ('InterCity 125', 43)
- Great Western Adelante (180)
- Eurostar
- 'Southern' electric units (377)
- DLR trains - NaviGPS users need to stand by the door, with the GPS horizontal, just above the bottom of the window
- Underground trains (tested on sub-surface and tube) - only when they can see the sky though!
- Caledonian Sleeper and other Mk2/Mk3 hauled stock
- First Capital Connect
- One Railway
- 'InterCity 225', BR Mark 4 carriages
- Scotrail 'Sprinter' - depending on GPS unit (156/158).
Trains known not to permit GPS reception
- Virgin Voyager (220/221)
- MML Meridians (222)
- derived from Voyagers, similar problems. MML still run HSTs as well, use these.
- Virgin Pendolino (390) - rumoured that the vestibule windows may be ok
- South West Trains 'Desiro' (444/450) - seats at some windows are ok (seemingly away from toilets, etc).
- Eurotunnel enclosed shuttle trains, though freight shuttles may work outside the tunnel.