OpenStreetMap
My plan is to work on bus lines, which seems to be the most difficult thing on OpenStreetMap: Editing them isn’t explained in the OSM-Wiki, most mappers do not know how to do it, and the bus lines on OSM are more often wrong than any other types of geographical information. So, I would like to reveal and unravel the secret of the OSM bus lines, the missing ones, and even more the ghost bus lines.
Discussion
Comment from zarl on 22 November 2015 at 13:33
The wiki actually has an article on buses, but also more general about public transport and bus routes. But what is a ghost line?
Comment from Paul Berry on 25 November 2015 at 20:52
Hi. I’m guessing a “ghost line” is a bus route that has been mapped but where the service has been withdrawn? This means you should simply delete the relation.
Or, do you mean, and following on from the above, uncovering where lines used to be, by looking into the history of deleted relations and revealing that in a custom map?
Curious to know more.
It’s not that easy editing routes. I find that, of iD, Potlatch and JOSM, Potlatch is easiest to manage routing (never used Merkaartor). Also, the Relation Analyzer is invaluable in highlighting any gaps in the route (a very common occurrence).
Comment from Ghost-Bus-Hunter on 4 October 2025 at 13:43
Hi both,
I just wanted to say thank you for both of your comments. Yes, it was about lines, that possibly were mapped correctly in the past, but at the time of using the map the bus line either goes elsewhere or doesn’t exist at all. I say “possibly”, because I do not know whether their mapping was correctly done and fully valid at any point in the past, of course.
For editing, I simply use the OSM website, no specific editors or extra apps, and I do not know, whether the website uses iD, Potlatch or JOSM.
My idea and hope in 2015 was, that automatically finding a route on OSM would at some point include public transportation. Since that never came true, and the bus lines are just some extra feature to be found by looking at the map, the whole project does not matter so much anymore, and also my timeframe completely changed since back then.
Anyway, thanks and good luck with your work!