[openrailwaymap] Fwd: [Talk-us] Rail tagging in US (and North America): operator=* and reporting_marks=*

Thanks. so you are saying you use something which is part of of rolling stock identifier in a way for which it was not invented, but which is handy. From an OSM point of view, I would prefer a neutral tag (something like "operator_idenitfier") which in the US corresponds to the first part of the reporting mark of the carriages of that operator. And say in Germany it would be a different thing, but still a way of identifying line operators. This would give us a uniform approach. (I know that this is in theory irrelevant as OSM keys and values are codes, which in most cases are British English terms that make it easier to memorise them) Volker On Fri, 5 Jun 2020 at 16:56, Chuck Sanders <nathhad(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: > Ways. > > The original use of Reporting Marks in NA is for rolling stock > identification, yes. However, it's also the only common, reliable, and > consistent short form abbreviation for operators. It's widely used that > way in both the railroad industry here and among the industry-connected > portions of the public. So, not an official defined use of the mark, but > so common in use that it is effectively industry standard here. For > example, the FRA, the official US government agency in control of railway > regulations, exclusively uses the reporting marks (and not full operator > name) for identification of ways and routes in their GIS database ( > https://fragis.fra.dot.gov/GISFRASafety/ which is OSM-compatible and > already being used as a reference in the US). Hence, we have an official > and authoritative source for which reporting mark is "primary" for each > company, and most appropriate to use - and it's already used as the > operator identification in the government map. > > All larger railroads do own (and often use) multiple different reporting > marks for their equipment, but all also have a single, best known, > "primary" reporting mark by which it will be commonly known, so this > proposal is effective even for lines with multiple registered marks > (especially with the help of the FRA map to clarify any inconsistencies). > > Chuck > > On Fri, Jun 5, 2020 at 9:35 AM Volker Schmidt <voschix(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: > >> Question on the term "reporting_mark" >> Wikipedia defines "reporting_mark" as "code used to identify owners or >> lessees of rolling stock <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_stock> >> and other equipment" and describes such codes alo in other parts of the >> world. >> In your discussion you seem to refer to railway lines or routes and not >> to rolling stock. >> >> What kind objects in OSM will carry the tag reporting_mark=* ? >> >> Volker >> (Italy) >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Talk-us mailing list >> Talk-us(a)openstreetmap.org >> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us >> >