[Talk-ca] Light rail mapping questions

[Mike Boos]

Thanks Michael for your reply


> Am 18.10.2016 um 03:52 schrieb Mike Boos:
> > Along on-road sections, the dedicated rail right-of-way moves from
> > centre-running to the outsides of the street at certain intersections. (A
> > by-product of some of the political compromises in route choices.) Does
> > anyone know of any examples of tracks going from the centre to the side
> of
> > the road with traffic lanes in OSM? I expect these are going to look
> messy.
>
> Look at any German, Austrian or Swiss city of your choice where every
> tram track is mapped as a single way in OSM (i.e. no tracks=2). I need
> more details (show us photos) to give a useful answer.
>

Here's an example of an intersection that's largely complete:
https://twitter.com/mikeboos/status/789892670453723136
The tracks on the right/behind of most of the photos are centre-running
between the two directions of car travel. Across the intersection, on the
left of the photos, one track changes sides with the travel lane so that it
lies between the sidewalk and the roadway. (The other track branches off
onto the perpendicular road.)

> There are also portions of the line that will share track with a freight
> > corridor. From what I can tell, convention appears to be to tag it with
> the
> > heavier mode, i.e. railway=rail instead of railway=light_rail. However,
> the
> > use of the track for freight is quite small - at most one freight train
> > to/from Elmira uses the track at night, when light rail service won't be
> > operating. Should the track still be marked as 'rail' instead of
> > 'light_rail,' or should we attempt to have the tags represent the
> dominant
> > use? (At present, some of these are tagged as railway=construction, even
> > though the freight train has been consistently using it overnight. This
> > section is also largely complete.)
>
> Yes. If the track is still usable for freight trains (even if limited to
> certain hours), it is a normal railway track and therefore gets
> railway=rail. What you describe is called "Karlsuhe model" – don't
> confuse it with our tagging scheme at OSM. ;-)
>
> I assume, that some people of Grand River Transit have visited the
> German cities Karlsruhe and/or Kassel. :-) The first one has been
> operating a tram-train system for more than 40 years.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlsruhe_Stadtbahn
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kassel_RegioTram


I don't know if I'd characterize this as a "Karlsuhe model" train-tram -
the system is entirely within a single urban area (even if it does span two
adjacent cities), it just uses an existing rail corridor in some places.
Unlike the Karlsuhe system, the vehicles have only a single operating
voltage.


> Tag the tracks as they look like. Sections where tracks share space with
> cars [1] are railway=tram. Where the trams are physically separated from
> the traffic [2], it's a railway=light_rail. That's how tagging works in
> cities which only have *one* tram/light rail system. If the city has two
> or three (low-floor tram and high-floor light rail; some German cities),
> it becomes more difficult because we also try to get the systems
> distinguishable (there are use cases). But that is not important now and
> the reason why Germans discuss correct tagging of trams, light rails and
> subways at their OSM Forum over multiple pages and threads. :-)
>

There are not really spaces shared with cars, (thank goodness) so the only
appropriate tag along roads is light_rail.

> Further, there is gauntlet track to allow freight trains to pass station
> > platforms. Do we tag the track closest to the platform as
> > railway=light_rail and the outer track as railway=rail? There's some
> > discussion here on gauntlet tracks here that suggests this is the case in
> > Europe: http://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewtopic.php?id=29131
>
> It is the case in Kaufungen near the city of Kassel which has a
> Karlsruhe-like tram-train system ("Regiotram").
>
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haltestelle_Niederka
> ufungen_Mitte_02.JPG
>
> Yes, the track for heavy trains is a normal train track (railway=rail)
> while the outer ones can only be used by light rail vehicles due to the
> smaller structure gauge. Therefore the light rail track gets
> railway=light_rail. Because we map one way per track at the centerline
> of the track, there are two (in Kaufungen three) parallel tracks and all
> get railway:interlaced=yes. This is useful for routing engines.
>
> If there were up to date Mapillary photos, I could give more and better
> advice. (Mapillary photos by pedestrians are better because are located
> on the sidewalk)
>

I think that makes sense. Here's an example of the gauntlet track at one of
the stations:
https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/768589656581509122/photo/1


>
> Greetings from Karlsruhe
>



-- 
Mike Boos, MASc.
mike.boos at gmail.com
519-580-5804
http://real.uwaterloo.ca/~mboos
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