[Talk-GB] Standardize railway platforms names & refs

[Tony Shield]

Hi Dave

You are probably fully aware of platforms  3A, 3B which can be same 
platforms with subdivisions, or separate platforms, eg Preston 3C is a 
separate physical platform to 3.

Some physical platforms are divided into two eg Gloucester has ref:1/2, 
with 1 being the southeastern end and 2 the north western end, don't 
know where the join is but confuses the heck out of mere passengers like 
me. Bristol has a similar arrangement with some platforms e.g. 7 & 8- 
Bristol appears to be mapped with correct platform physical distinctions 
and refs.

Tony

On 27/08/2022 21:41, Dave F via Talk-GB wrote:
> Hi
>
> In my endeavour to maintain the correct number of railways stations & 
> improve the rail network I've noticed that due to the linear nature of 
> platforms mapped as polygons, the labels often fail to render, and if 
> the do, will occasionally obscure other objects. I plan to amend their 
> name tags to improve the situation.
>
> First off, I don't think railway platforms have genuine 'names', such 
> as 'The Casey Jones memorial platform', but the major renderers render 
> that tag atm, so it's the one I plan to change. If you know of any 
> with genuine names, please let me know.
>
> There is a discussion on OSM-Carto's github to change the rendering 
> from name to ref, but, as usual, the speed of the discussion is glacial.
> https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues/3271
>
> Ideally I think the only label which should be rendered is the 
> reference number/letter, however I'm aware there are some caveats to 
> that, which is why I'm posting here.
>
> Amendments I'm planning to make:
> Remove 'Platform' from those named 'Platform X'. In OSM we don't 
> explicitly self describe objects.
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Names#Names_are_not_for_descriptions
>
> Remove station names. They're already rendered in the railway=station 
> object.
> Remove track/line names.
> Remove name's of line operators
> Tidy up any multiple numbers so they're all in the format of '1;2' etc.
> Copy all that are just numbers/letter to 'ref' tags if they don't 
> already exist.
>
> The longest name is "Great Portland Street - Circle, Metropolitan, 
> Hammersmith & City Line - Eastbound - Platform 1" which is just 
> ridiculous, IMO.
>
> However it leads on to some questions:
> Are all London underground platforms signed as 'Eastbound, Northbound' 
> etc?
> Do Manchester trams have ref numbers. Currently they're all tagged 
> with the station name only?
>
> I plan of performing this in a few steps using various Overpass 
> routines to filter out each configuration of name. I'll probably start 
> with 'Platform X' format as it's the lowest hanging fruit.
>
> On topic comments & suggestions welcome.
>
> DaveF
>
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