Talk:Key:passenger lines

What is the point of that tag?

If each track is mapped - then what is the point of mapping it also as a tag? Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 16:25, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

This tag has nothing to do with how many tracks are mapped. It is there to tell how many tracks the railway line has. The number of tracks is a significant feature of a line, so a multitrack line has normally more importance and capacity as a single track line. Zooming in to look at the paralel tracks is not sufficient for finding out because:

• there might be different lines running parallel for some way
• this feature describes a railway line which might be quite long so if you would be interested in this feature you would tend to zoom out.

It is not useful to make this a feature of the route describing the line because the line might change the number of tracks for example if there is a bottleneck on the way.

Some examples:

• Kraków Mydinki - Jaworzno Szczakowa is a double track line
• Katowice - Zwardón ist double track until Bielsko-B. and single track beyond
• between Bukowno and Wolbrom you see three tracks but it is one double track electrified 1435mm line and a single track 1520mm line and they cannot be used by the same vehicles [Jaimemd]

It would be courteous to sign your response/s. What is meant by 'passenger_line'? Most mappers would think a 'passenger_line' is a single track. I think what you may mean by 'passenger_line' is a railway route - a collection of continuous ways that connect two locations? I expect many people have differing views on how this tag should be used. Warin61 (talk) 03:25, 20 October 2025 (UTC)

This tag contradicts itself

Starting this section after https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/wozu-dient-eigentlich-passenger-lines/105168/

"The counting should not follow internal regulations of specific or national railway companies. " and "The counting of tracks should be like it is recognised by the general public and be consistent all over the world"
vs.
"for all other tracks, i.e., in combination with service=spur, service=yard or service=crossover"

This is a total contradiction, especially when multiple lines run towards the same destination, https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/810200617 https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/810200613 and https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/219990906 should all be passenger_lines=3 because these would be considered as a triple-tracked line by someone from the general public.

Similarly, at https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/447379848 the passenger_lines should be waaay higher than what is mapped there, a layperson would ignore service=*

So, how to use this tag correctly?

Kind Regards --Gudensberger (talk) 17:15, 28 October 2023 (UTC)

Answer to the two above questions

The meaning and the usage of this tag are to be described in the main page. I updated this in relation to this discussion and added links to the community forum pages, where this tag is also discussed in detail. The basis of using this tag is the understandig of the principle of a railway line in contrast to stations, yards or spurs. This is in German language described here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streckengleis Please also use the references mentioned in the main article for how this feature is used outside openstreetmap. In case of any doubt please skip this tag and leave existing work unchanged! --[Jaimemd]