[Talk-us] Amtrak network=Amtrak tagging

[OSM Volunteer stevea]

I remain listening as to what OSM might best do with the network= tag on Amtrak routes.  Some additional research (Wikipedia) reveals that "Amtrak services fall into three groups:  short-haul service on the Northeast Corridor, state-supported short haul service outside the Northeast Corridor, and long-distance service known within Amtrak as the National Network."  (It is not known what routes are in this "National Network.")  As for "international" routes — there are three which continue into Canada — these are not mentioned, although it may be that these three international routes are considered to be in the National Network.

Current tagging (passenger=*) of national, regional and suburban (meaning "commuter") seem to correlate quite well with these three groups, and the three international routes are indeed tagged passenger=international.  But that is the passenger=* tag, not the network=* tag.  I still wonder (out loud, here) whether all their network=* tags should be set as simply network=Amtrak or whether these three (four, really) groups should be set as:

network=Amtrak Commuter (on Amtrak routes which are now set to passenger=suburban, meaning "commuter"),
network=Amtrak Regional (on Amtrak routes which are now set to passenger=regional),
network=Amtrak National (on Amtrak routes which are now set to passenger=national),
network=Amtrak International (on Amtrak routes which are now set to passenger=international).

Because these seem redundant, given the same information can be gleaned from the passenger=* tag, all Amtrak routes set as:

network=Amtrak

is what I'm leaning towards doing.  Although, I do remain listening to opinion/guidance from anybody here on talk-us, including pointing me to additional on-line authoritative data.  We're talking about fifty or fewer route=train relation tags, not huge.  Though, as the Northeast Regionals (and other Amtrak routes) break out of rough public_transport:version=1 and grow into version 2 routes, this number will grow.  This is partly why I want to establish network=* tagging as correct, to get ahead of this curve.

Thank you for reading,
SteveA