OpenRailwayMap

OpenRailwayMap
	OpenRailwayMap section of northeastern US and southeastern Canada
Type of site	Collaborative mapping
Owner	Community-owned
Products	Geographic data
URL	www.openrailwaymap.org
Commercial	No
Registration	Required for contributors, not required for viewing
Launched	2013; 12 years ago
Current status	Active
Content license	Various

OpenRailwayMap (ORM) is an online collaborative mapping project developing a worldwide railway map using technology based on the OpenStreetMap project. The project is part of the OpenStreetMap database, and acts as a renderer for the existing OpenStreetMap database to include additional information for railroad lines worldwide.^[2] The project was launched in 2013.^[3]

History

The project was started in 2011.^[4] The OpenRailwayMap website was launched in mid 2013.^[3] The map originally supported both raster tiles and vector tiles, but support for the latter was dropped in 2017 due to poor performance.^[5] A fork of OpenRailwayMap with a more modern vector tile implementation was announced in 2025.^[6]

OpenRailwayMap contains data for railway line positions, as well as the following information about them: track type (i.e. bridge, tunnel, regular line); track line type and current use (i.e. main, branch, yard; construction, disused, abandoned); max rail speeds; train protection; track electrification and track voltage if applicable; and track gauge.^[7]

Applications

Some of the uses for OpenRailwayMap are as follows: scientific models/simulations, data for model train enthusiasts, track information for trainspotters, and routing/public transport. ^[4]^[8]

As well as the project website there is also a mobile app available for Android devices.^[9]

API

OpenRailwayMap has a public and free (albeit limited-use) API. It is designed for small-scale applications. Users can query for information such as rail locations and data related to the rail.^[10]^[11]

Contributing

OpenRailwayMap allows anyone to contribute in many ways, such as:

Creating data using photography or GPS trackers and sending it to experienced project editors
Using the JOSM desktop editing tool to expand the database (Registration required with a verified email address, no registration required to view data)
Contributing to the project's open source code

Internationalization

OpenRailwayMap is available to users in around 22 languages.^[4]

References

^ "Whois openrailwaymap.org". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
^ "Where to find railroad maps online". Trains. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
^ ^a ^b "Whois openrailwaymap.org". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
^ ^a ^b ^c "OpenRailwayMap - OpenStreetMap Wiki". wiki.openstreetmap.org. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
^ Matheisen, Alexander (2 April 2017). "Removing vector tile support". openrailwaymap (Mailing list). Retrieved 7 April 2025.
^ Wieringa, Hidde (6 March 2025). "OpenRailwayMap-vector announcement". openrailwaymap (Mailing list). Retrieved 7 April 2025.
^ Brebbia, C.A.; Mera, J.M.; Tomii, N.; Tzieropoulos, P., eds. (2016). Computers in Railways XV: Railway Engineering Design and Operation. Great Britain: WIT Press. pp. 119–120. eISSN 1743-3509. ISBN 978-1-78466-123-6.
^ Blumenschein, Mattias; Babilon, Katherina; Schmidt, Bernd D.; Pfaff, Raphael (2021). "Use cases in autonomous shunting" (PDF). RWTH AACHEN UNIVERSITY. Aachen, Germany. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
^ "Railmap for OpenRailwayMap - Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
^ "OpenRailwayMap/API - OpenStreetMap Wiki". wiki.openstreetmap.org. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
^ Gaffuri, Julien (2018). "Generalising OpenRailwayMap to 1:10k and 1:50k" (PDF). TU Dresden. Luxembourg city, Luxembourg. Retrieved 8 September 2024.