OpenRailwayMap
Ranked 2 of 3 railway maps by recommenders
Free, up-to-date rail-only world map that people use to find tracks and routes. Critics find it overloaded and poorly curated.
Free, up-to-date rail-only world map that people use to find tracks and routes. Critics find it overloaded and poorly curated.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Comprehensive, up-to-date rail-only coverage
“for an up-to-date rail-only map of the world”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “An official atlas of North Korea” “is much more comprehensive”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “World Train Map – 1247 train routes around the world” Finds tracks and routes
“I love it! I used it last month to find a track that recently got noisy in our neighborhood”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (January 2026)” “I used it recently to find a land and sea route from Southampton to Marrakesh”
Comment from 21 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: The Official National Train Map Sucked, So I Made My Own”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Overloaded and cluttered
“The problem with every comprehensive map I've seen is that they are way too comprehensive.”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “World Train Map – 1247 train routes around the world” “overloaded, very badly curated, non-dynamic OpenRailwayMap”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “World Train Map – 1247 train routes around the world”
Other railway maps people recommend
The two most recommended other railway maps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real-time rail map of Great Britain | 9 | 5 | 64% | 1 | — | — |
| OpenRailwayMapThis page | 6 | 3 | 67% | 4 | — | — |
| Dutch Train Map Simulator | 5 | 3 | 63% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
8 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“is much better, I don't know why people keep recommending the older, raster tiles version”
“overloaded, very badly curated, non-dynamic OpenRailwayMap”
“the electrification map is just a mess of many similarly shaded colors”
“The problem with every comprehensive map I've seen is that they are way too comprehensive.”
“is much more comprehensive”
“I love it! I used it last month to find a track that recently got noisy in our neighborhood”
“I used it recently to find a land and sea route from Southampton to Marrakesh”
“for an up-to-date rail-only map of the world”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.