Discrepancies with rail lines on maps

[Bayum]

I've just been looking at 5E84 from York to Leeds and couldn't work out the route it ran...I was following it on 'Maps' on the iPhone and couldn't for te life of me work out how the train ran into and reversed at Castleford.

I then looked on Googlemaps which showed Castleford as being a through station - not a terminating station as 'Maps' made it out to be!


Now I know that 'Maps' isn't the greatest of all map based apps to use, however I was under the impression that Apple had worked hard with their app with the iOS7 release earlier this year.

Are there any other maps that you use that contain these sorts of discrepancies?

 

[edwin_m]

Castleford is a through station. Passenger trains from Barnsley to Leeds reverse there and if I recall correctly only one platform is active, but the line goes through to York so a train from York to Leeds can run through non-stop.

 

[Class172]

As I understood it, to any train calling at Castleford, it is effectively a terminus; however non-stop and freight workings can pass through. I can understand why both maps you state show them differently.

 

[High Dyke]

Google maps used to show the East Coast mainline at Newark Northgate turn right, towards Lincoln (on the alignment of the Midland Railway) whilst the Midland line from Nottingham turned north (onto the alignment of the ECML) - without actually crossing one another. It has since been corrected.

 

[455driver]

Castleford is a through station but the Northbound line is freight/ECS only and doesnt have any booked passenger services over it*.


PSUL 2013 lists one service over the line, probably a route retention trip for the train crews-

Milford Junction - Castleford (39,40) YE04
1K28 2006 SuO Manchester Piccadilly / 2033 SuO Huddersfield - Hull (until 28 July and from 15 September 2013)

 

[yorkie]

It's not uncommon for passenger services between York & Leeds to go via Castleford, especially at night. It varies by timetable but at times all night services have been booked that way.

I avoid all Apple products, so I wouldn't know how inaccurate it is, but if you want to see railway lines, I would recommend OS maps (you can view OS maps on Bing).

 

[maniacmartin]

OpenStreetMap, which is mapped wholly by volunteers, is also very good with rail lines. They have an Android app called OsmAnd and loads of Apple apps.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The Cobb atlas shows the former Audenshaw station (1888-1905) situated between Droylsden and Denton, on the wrong side of the road.

 

[Bayum]

As I understood it, to any train calling at Castleford, it is effectively a terminus; however non-stop and freight workings can pass through. I can understand why both maps you state show them differently.

But I can't...


Why would a map show a station as being a terminus when trains can run through the station?

Surely that's like saying maps don't have to display roads that aren't used very often, or small country roads?

 

[tractakid]

Maps have different purposes. A geographical atlas, a representation of the occupation of areas of land, should show a through station. As would a track atlas. A map/diagram showing a summary of passenger rail services will display it as a terminus, as the vast majority of passenger trains do not pass through the station.

 

[edwin_m]

Back in the 80s my parents had a road atlas which showed railways only if they had a passenger service. This always struck me as a bit pointless, since people using a road atlas would probably be using the railway as a navigational landmark rather than wanting to know whether they could catch a train. But it does show that these things sometimes exist. Ordnance Survey Landranger also went through a phase some time ago of showing freight-only lines in the manner they otherwise only used for sidings (thin black line with cross markings). The Landranger mapping on Bing shows the Cambridge guided busway in this manner but the Luton one as a thick black line like railways, but both are marked as "guided busway".

 

[WSW]

I've just been looking at 5E84 from York to Leeds and couldn't work out the route it ran...I was following it on 'Maps' on the iPhone and couldn't for te life of me work out how the train ran into and reversed at Castleford.

I then looked on Googlemaps which showed Castleford as being a through station - not a terminating station as 'Maps' made it out to be!


Now I know that 'Maps' isn't the greatest of all map based apps to use, however I was under the impression that Apple had worked hard with their app with the iOS7 release earlier this year.

Are there any other maps that you use that contain these sorts of discrepancies?

You get what you pay (or don't pay) for. Google and Apple will source the cheapest possible map data. They originally used cheap "centre-line" sat nav road data with some infill from other sources. Both have now improved their products to some extent. Both products have their uses but I would never use them as definitive since the main driver for the product is profit. Even OpenStreetMap (OSM), a brilliant concept that is making great strides towards completeness, has its technical issues. There is virtually no quality control, no metadata about capture accuracies and no clear plan for updating the database - these are things that are important to those like me who re-use the data. I'm really pleased with the huge increase in the use of mapping, thanks to the likes of Google and Apple and OSM and even dear old Ordnance Survey. But just beware that few of these products are definitive and up-to-date.

Steve

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Back in the 80s my parents had a road atlas which showed railways only if they had a passenger service. This always struck me as a bit pointless, since people using a road atlas would probably be using the railway as a navigational landmark rather than wanting to know whether they could catch a train. But it does show that these things sometimes exist. Ordnance Survey Landranger also went through a phase some time ago of showing freight-only lines in the manner they otherwise only used for sidings (thin black line with cross markings). The Landranger mapping on Bing shows the Cambridge guided busway in this manner but the Luton one as a thick black line like railways, but both are marked as "guided busway".

I Know what you mean, I was navigating in a car in Derbyshire some years ago and was confused when the road map I was using did not show some freight only routes. (It was the line not so far from Buxton). O S Maps are usually the best for showing passenger and freight/other lines. Some also show the route of disused and dismantled lines too which can make fascinating reading, if you like that sort of thing.