It’s no secret that I’m trying to figure out how to simplify mapping of public transport to bring it within reach of all mappers. All without losing the ability to map stops, lines and itineraries in full detail without any limitations. My vision is that a stop with no discernible objects in the middle of nowhere and a stop with all possible equipment should be mapped exactly the same: as a NODE next to the highway/railway.

There are many stop_position nodes I added over time that don’t serve much of a purpose, but then there are some that PT_Assistant’s validator actually started to depend on. It’s those that ‘terminate’ itinerary variations.

Maybe we should get terminology defined first.

What I call a line, is represented as route_master relations in OSM (and confusingly found in routes.txt in GTFS). What I call an itinerary or itinerary variation is represented as route relations in OSM. And stops, well I’d say highway=bus_stop, railway=tram_stop, railway=halt to begin with and public_transport=platform + mode of transport, if you like.

Anyway, stop_position nodes as indication of where an itinerary starts/ends (and splitting the way on those nodes) does make sense.

I still wouldn’t add them for each and every stop though, I still wouldn’t add any details like name on them and I definitely wouldn’t add them to the route relations though. That’s what the nodes next to the highway/railway are used for.