[openrailwaymap] Station importance

[Roland Hieber]

On 29.03.2015 22:11, Alexander Matheisen wrote:
> Or should we create a new tag a tag like railway:station_importance=*
> with some category values such as local/regional/international/... and
> leave the existing railway:station_category=* tag for mapping
> country-specific categories?

I vote in favour for this idea to avoid a German viewpoint, and would like to
rename railway:station_category to railway:station_category:de for this case.
railway:station_category and railway:station_importance can thus be used in
parallel. For railway:station_importance, I propose something like the following
explanations (but I can only give examples for Germany, sorry):

*railway:station_importance=local*: The station has importance for a few
surrounding villages and/or towns. Some regional trains may not even stop here.
(In Germany, this would typically correspond to Bahnhofskategorie 7-5, examples:
rural stops, suburbs, S-Bahn stations)

*railway:station_importance=regional*: A stop with higher importance, for
example a connecting station on a railway junction. At least all regional trains
stop here, maybe even some interregional trains. (typically Bahnhofskategorie
5-3, for example Kreiensen [0], Rothenburg [1], or Großheringen [2])

[0]: http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/51.8531/9.9615
[1]: http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/53.1073/9.3988
[2]: http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/51.1059/11.6603

*railway:station_importance=interregional*: The station serves more than only
regional trains, it is commonly used to change for interregional and intercity
connections. The station is usually the most important one of several railway
stops in a city. (Bahnhofskategorie 3-2, for example Göttingen [3], Ulm Hbf [4])

[3]: http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/51.5408/9.9134
[4]: http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/48.4046/9.9726

*railway:station_importance=international*: The station is a big hub in the
national railway system and serves long-distance connections to major national
or even international cities. It usually also provides access to an
international airport. (Bahnhofskategorie 2-1, examples: Frankfurt Hbf,
Frankfurt Flughafen, Berlin Hbf, München Hbf, Hannover Hbf)

I guess this proposal can still be refined, but that's what was going through my
mind right now.

 - Roland