OpenStreetMap
Given the updating of my UK Rail Map is now somewhat automated, it means as part of the monthly update procedure I can produce output such as this to show how the map is changing. There wasn't very much newly added over the three weeks between these files, which I'm hoping means that the uk rail map is fairly feature-complete.
I've produced this especially for somebody wanting to know how feature-complete we have the European rail network. Just looking at the rail network maps, even if I produced one for the whole of Europe, isn't going to tell us in any detail how complete things are - though it may give some obvious empty bits. I'm hoping a monthly output like this will be of use, and if I ever get routing working then we'll see what bizarre routes get generated.
Old New Difference
Files mapnik/ukrail.osm date: Sun Dec 14 15:35:52 2008 mapnik/*[railway=*][bbox=-6.5,49.5,2.1,59] date: Mon Jan 5 10:08:03 2009
Number nodes 104997 107320 2323
Number ways 12121 12448 327
Number node tags 0 0 0
Number way tags 32127 33331 1204
Waynode count 117838 120504 2666
Number active users: 127
http://kaerast.blogbound.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/newrail.png
Discussion
Comment from Mappo on 12 January 2009 at 11:57
In the OSM evaluation found here: http://povesham.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/osm-quality-evaluation/ one of the simple measure of completeness was total road length versus a simplified OS map.
I don't know if you, or anyone else, has the ability to derive a similar number for the rail network. Some figures I found on network rail's site:
20,000 miles of track (and infrastructure)
40,000 bridges and tunnels
2,518 stations
Comment from kaerast on 12 January 2009 at 16:23
I'd considered that, however whilst I can derive those figures from the osm xapi export I have it wouldn't be too accurate. I'll have a go at pulling these figures later, but:
Stations can be tagged multiple times in OSM because of platforms not ajoining each other
Track and infrastructure isn't too meaningful, infrastructure would include highway=service lanes around the railway which aren't tagged as railway=*, tracks aren't all owned by Network Rail, etc.
Bridges and tunnels wouldn't account for bridges going over railways, and we don't know if that is counted, plus tunnel=yes would cover much of the London underground system.
Comment from kaerast on 12 January 2009 at 17:05
OK, quick rough and ready count from an xapi export of railway=*:
3334 stations (people have checked that all mainline stations are included, the extra 800 or so stations here will include stations which are tagged multiple times and non network-rail owned stations
7938 meters of line. Hmm, something wrong there, let me see...
highway length sums (metres):
rail 17212699m
abandoned 4333055m
preserved 579200m
subway 437247m
disused 316685m
tram 191097m
narrow_gauge 141371m
light_rail 108768m
station 31080m
construction 20172m
platform 19184m
freight 8031m
miniature 5698m
monorail 3416m
tunnel 3325m
service 2463m
narrow_gauge; abandoned 1914m
incline 1851m
depot 1339m
viaduct 931m
yard 918m
narrow guage 842m
siding 755m
Bristol Harbour Railway 750m
PRT 730m
Platform 310m
level_crossing 206m
signal_box 145m
abandoned; disused 106m
fake 104m
suspended 69m
proposed 61m
cliff_railway 51m
crossing 26m
(type value here) 24m
TOTAL 23424644m
which works out as 10,700 miles of track which I assume is network-rail owned. However, this doesn't take into account the infrastructure or multiple lines running alongside each other which either aren't on the map or are tagged with lines=*.
bridges = 2687
tunnels = 506
So 3100ish tunnels and bridges, but that's across the entire rail network and not just network-rail owned infrastructure. This figure seems very low.