[OSM-talk] OpenRailwayMap Electrification Status vs tag electrification=no

[Michael Reichert]

Hi Pierre,

Am 22.02.22 um 22:30 schrieb Pierre Béland via talk:
> I was told by a contributor in a private message to not remove electrification=no tags on railways because they are necessary for OpenRailwayMap Style to report Electrification status coloring ways based on electrification tag.
> What to think about that. Would it be possible simply for such Style to report as electrification=no and not electrification=unknown when this tag does not appear ?

you mean electrified=contact_line/rail/no/…, don't you? The key 
electrification=* exists 4 times in OSM but electrified is used by 1.9 
million objects. electrified=* is used by the electrification style of 
OpenRailwayMap and the tag is in use for more than 10 years by mappers 
(the style is not as old).

The map style distinguishes between tracks which are not electrified and 
those where this information has not been mapped yet (e.g. survey or, in 
some cases, aerial imagery). The tag is as important as gauge=* (whose 
main value is 1435 except certain countries).

It makes a great difference if you can use a track with an electric 
locomotive or not. For many yard and spur tracks the status of 
electrification is different from the main tracks of the railway line. 
While the main tracks are electrified, the yard and spur tracks can be 
used by diesel locomotives only. The status of electrification of a 
railway line is often easy to find out: press reports about it, you can 
see it anywhere along the line etc. On the other hand, individual yard 
and spur tracks need to be visited. That's why the map style makes a 
difference between electrified=no (black colour) and missing 
electrified=* (grey colour).

For me, oneway=no and electrified=no are similar but different. 
oneway=yes is assumed as default for roads but there is no default 
electrified=*. As a cycleway mapper, I use oneway=no very often but on 
highway=footway/path/cycleway only because you may not use cycleways on 
the left side of the road in Germany except explicitly permitted by sign.

Best regards

Michael
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