Key:railway

See also: Railways and OpenRailwayMap/Tagging

railway
Description
The railway key is used to mark all kinds of railways, railway infrastructure or other transports using rails.
Group: railways
Used on these elements
Documented values: 52
Useful combination
bridge=* electrified=* operator=* service=* tunnel=* landuse=railway
Status: de facto
railway=* More details at taginfo
Tools for this tag
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railway=* is used to tag rails and infrastructure for many kinds of railways including light rail, mainline freight and industrial railways, metros, monorails and trams.

Values

There are a lot more values for railway=*. They are documented at OpenRailwayMap/Tagging and the documentation of country-specific tagging (especially signals and other infrastructure which differ from country to country).

Key	Value	Element	Comment	Rendering carto	Photo
Tracks
railway	abandoned		The course of a former railway which has been abandoned and the track removed. The course is still recognized through embankments, cuttings, tree rows, bridges, tunnels, remaining track ties, building shapes and rolling or straight ways. For demolished rails that are no longer identifiable, e.g. that have been built over, some use the highly questionable railway=razed.
railway	construction		Railway under construction.
railway	proposed		Railway being proposed but haven't started construction. Please see the proposed page regarding verifiability on the ground of this value.
railway	disused		A section of railway which is no longer used but where the track and infrastructure remains in place. The track is likely overgrown with endemic vegetation, but could be brought back into useful service with only minor effort.
railway	funicular		Cable driven inclined railways on a steep slope, with a pair of cars connected by one cable
railway	light_rail		A higher-standard tram system, normally in its own right-of-way. Often it connects towns and thus reaches a considerable length (tens of kilometres).
railway	miniature		Miniature railways are narrower than narrow gauge and carry passengers, frequently at an exact scale of "standard-sized" rail (for example "1/4 scale"). They can often be found in parks.
railway	monorail		A railway with only a single rail. A monorail can run above the rail like in Las Vegas and Disneyland or can suspend below the rail like the Wuppertal Schwebebahn (Germany).
railway	narrow_gauge		Narrow-gauge passenger or freight train tracks. Narrow gauge railways can have mainline railway service like the Rhaetian Railway in Switzerland or can be a small light industrial railway. Use gauge=* to specify the actual width of rails in mm.
railway	preserved		This is the old tag for historic trains. Use railway:preserved=yes for historical railway instead.
railway	rail		Full sized passenger or freight train tracks in the standard gauge for the country or state.
railway	subway		A city passenger rail service running mostly grade separated (see Wikipedia:rapid transit). Often a significant portion of the line or its system/network is underground.
railway	tram		One or two carriage rail vehicle tracks, usually sharing motor road, sometimes called "street running" (Other languages).
Additional track features or attributes
bridge	yes		If the railway goes over a street, waterway or other railway on an elevated structure.
cutting	yes		A section where the railway is significantly lower than ground level, but not underground.
electrified	contact_line rail yes no		contact_line: a power line over the train head rail: a third rail near the track supplying the train with power yes: electrified track, but no details available no: track with no power supply.
embankment	yes		A section where the railway is raised significantly higher than ground level.
embedded_rails	yes/<type of railway>		Specifies that a highway on which non-railway traffic is also allowed has railway tracks embedded in it but the rails are mapped as separate ways.
frequency	number [Hz]		The frequency with which a line is electrified. Use 0 for DC. Also see the voltage tag.
railway:track_ref	number		Track number
service	crossover		Relatively short lengths of track which switch traffic from one parallel line to another
service	siding		Relatively short lengths of track, running parallel to (and connected to) a main route
service	spur		Relatively short lengths of track, built to give one company or entity access to a main or branch line.
service	yard		Tracks within railway company operated marshalling or maintenance yards.
tunnel	yes		If the railway goes below ground. Most subways have this tag.
tracks	number		Number of parallel tracks in close proximity when mapped as one single way representing all tracks. If not given means unknown and defaults to 1. In many parts of the world the tracks are being drawn out separately so that there is more detail, in which case this tag isn't used.
usage	main branch industrial military tourism scientific test		main line: heavy traffic branch line: connecting places with a mainline industrial: servicing large plants (iron, chemical etc.), surface mining, … military: servicing military area tourism: most mountain rails (rack-rails, funicular) and preserved railways scientific: rail transport at spaceports, large array telescopes, etc. test: track for testing new wheels, rails, tracks and rail technologies.
voltage	number		The voltage with which a line is electrified. Also see the frequency tag.
Stations and stops
railway	halt		A small station without switches
public_transport	stop_position		The position on the railway track where the train (its centre) stops at a platform. This is useful for routing on long platforms where also short trains stop and on long platforms where multiple trains stop behind each other. See also public_transport=stop_area.
public_transport	platform		This is parallel to the rail line for showing where the actual platforms are. It is also to know where you can change platform and enter the station, so use footpaths to connect them. This is really useful for routing too. Use only if the platform is served by public transport.
railway	platform		This is parallel to the rail line for showing where the actual platforms are. It is also to know where you can change platform and enter the station, so use footpaths to connect them. This is really useful for routing too. Use in addition to public_transport=platform.
public_transport	station		Railway passenger-only station.
railway	station		Railway passenger and/or cargo station. Use in addition to public_transport=station.
railway	stop		Marks the position where trains stop at a station. It should be added as a node on a railway=rail way.
railway	subway_entrance		The entrance to a subway station, usually going from surface to underground.
railway	tram_stop		A tram stop is a place where a passenger can embark / disembark a tram.
Infrastructure
landuse	railway		Ground used around railways and railwaystations.
railway	buffer_stop		Stops the train at the end of a track. See buffer stop.
railway	crossing		A point where pedestrians may cross.
railway	derail		A device used to prevent fouling of a rail track by unauthorized movements of trains or unattended rolling stock. See Derail (railroad).
railway	level_crossing		A point where rails and roads cross.
railway	railway_crossing		Crossing rails with no interconnection.
railway	roundhouse		A semicircular building with many stalls for servicing engines.
railway	signal		Any kind of railway signal.
railway	switch		Full connections between railways (aka 'points').
railway	tram_level_crossing		A point where trams and roads cross.
railway	traverser		These are used for changing trains between railways. Also known as transfer table.
railway	turntable		These are used for changing the direction that part of a train is pointing in.	: — :
railway	ventilation_shaft		A structure that allows ventilation in underground tunnels
railway	wash		A railroad carriage/car wash
railway	water_crane		A structure to deliver water to steam locomotives
railway	user defined		All commonly used values according to Taginfo

This table is a wiki template with a default description in English. Editable here.

Possible tagging mistakes

transport=subway

		$1%
		$1%
		$1%
		$1%

More details at taginfo

• transport=subway

If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
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