User talk:GazzerK

3rd_rail and 4th_rail values of electrified

Hi there! I noticed you added a couple of values to OpenRailwayMap/Tagging, noting that the usage of electrified=rail is discouraged. This comes as a bit of a surprise to me, since Taginfo lists 48,749 instances of electrified=rail, and only 60 instances of electrified=4th_rail, all concentrated in England. electrified=3rd_rail remains unused worldwide. Was there any discussion behind changing the documentation of these tags? electrified=rail seems overwhelmingly popular. If this is something you want to propose changing, I'd suggest going through the proposal process first. clay_c (talk) 21:09, 6 June 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the comment. Yes, I proposed the change to the open rail map group and there was discussion and agreement there. [1]. AFAIK this group is the main user of these tags. The UK network has around 400 route km of 4th rail electrification (the whole of the London Underground network) and the system is sufficiently different - both electrically and mechanically - to warrant its own tag. The previous tagging scheme meant that this network would erroneously be tagged as 3rd rail. The only reason that very few electrified=4th_rail tags exist is that we have only just begun retagging the London network.

Happy to fill out the proposal form if that is the preferred route. --GazzerK (talk) 10:59, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

I'm glad to see consensus on this—just wanted to make sure. The proposal process is probably not necessary in this case. Though perhaps it should be mentioned in the documentation that electrified=rail is still widely used but unspecific and needs to be systematically replaced. clay_c (talk) 18:15, 7 June 2020 (UTC)