Hello Waterloo Region is in the process of building a light rail system. This has meant a lot of streets are being reconstructed and changed, and now that large portions of the line are completed, there are lots of changes that will need to be made to map what is the largest infrastructure project local governments here have undertaken.
There are similarities to some other Canadian light rail and streetcar systems (with dedicated rights of way), but also some unique features which I'd like to get some advice about how to map. Along on-road sections, the dedicated rail right-of-way moves from centre-running to the outsides of the street at certain intersections. (A by-product of some of the political compromises in route choices.) Does anyone know of any examples of tracks going from the centre to the side of the road with traffic lanes in OSM? I expect these are going to look messy. There are also portions of the line that will share track with a freight corridor. From what I can tell, convention appears to be to tag it with the heavier mode, i.e. railway=rail instead of railway=light_rail. However, the use of the track for freight is quite small - at most one freight train to/from Elmira uses the track at night, when light rail service won't be operating. Should the track still be marked as 'rail' instead of 'light_rail,' or should we attempt to have the tags represent the dominant use? (At present, some of these are tagged as railway=construction, even though the freight train has been consistently using it overnight. This section is also largely complete.) Further, there is gauntlet track to allow freight trains to pass station platforms. Do we tag the track closest to the platform as railway=light_rail and the outer track as railway=rail? There's some discussion here on gauntlet tracks here that suggests this is the case in Europe: http://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewtopic.php?id=29131 Thanks Mike -- Mike Boos
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