[Talk-GB] railway stations (again)

[SK53 on OSM]

On 26/04/2011 12:38, Thomas Wood wrote:
> On 04/26/11 12:04, Peter Miller wrote:
>> Baker Street. There are three separate nodes tagged
>> 'railway=station,name=Baker Street' (one for each line served). In
>> reality there five separate lines each of which may have 2 platforms
>> (unless any of them share platforms) together with 4 entrances but only
>> one 'station'.
>>
>> Embankment. There is a single 'railway-station' node on one of the lines
>> that stop at Embankment. In reality there are four lines each of which
>> may have 2 platforms (except for those that share lines) and two 
>> entrances.
>>
>> Westminster. There is a single 'railway=station' node at a crossing of
>> the two lines. In reality the lines probably cross each other on
>> different layers and each probably have two platforms. There are a total
>> of 5 entrances according the NaPTAN.
>
> etc...
>
> These issues have been bugging me for a while - for instance, on the 
> sections of District/Picc through Hammersmith, you get the rediculous 
> situation of the lines forming something similar to =X= such that each 
> is connected to the single station node.
>
> Unfortunately, as is always the case, time is my limiting factor 
> (hopefully some will appear freed over my summer!)
>
> Thomas
>
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Well spotted, we definitely ought to work for something more coherent.

As for Paddington I would keep the two tube stations separate from the 
mainline station. The fact that there are two stations called Paddington 
is invariably confuses people who might expect that this is a practical 
exchange point. In fact the old Metropolitan Hammersmith Line station is 
not really a decent exchange point except for some local mainline 
services: it's also a nightmare with a decent sized bag.

St Pancras is effectively several stations under one roof: the Eurostar, 
Midland Mainline and the Thameslink services are pretty much independent.

Working out a way to represent these individual components, the 
relationship with the underground, location of services (ticket offices 
etc) and suitable pedestrian routing through these stations would not 
only help for other complex transport exchanges, but offer real value 
for users of OSM. The walk to/from platforms 12/13/14 of Paddington to 
the Bakerloo & District/Circle line platforms is a not inconsiderable 
part of a cross-London transfer.

On the other hand, something like the tagging of Zurich Hbf is probably 
too complicated for an average contributor to want to contemplate: 
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/1532513.

Jerry