World Train Map redraws 1,093 routes with OpenStreetMap data
World Train Map (worldtrainmap.com) is a free, no-signup interactive atlas of 1,247 notable train routes across 120 countries, built and maintained by one person as a hobby project. Its fullscreen world map covers high-speed, classic, night, scenic, heritage and luxury lines; every route has its own page with distance, fastest journey time, top speed, operator, rolling stock and the year the line opened. The underlying data is downloadable as CSV, JSON and GeoJSON under a CC BY 4.0 licence, and the site keeps a public corrections log describing what changes and why.
The site was previously called TrainRouter. On 2026-08-11 it was renamed World Train Map, because, in its own words, a router plans a journey and hands back a departure, while this tool has never sold a ticket or read a timetable; it only draws routes and explains what each one is. Every trainrouter.com address now redirects to the equivalent worldtrainmap.com page in a single step, keeping its path, so old bookmarks and links from elsewhere keep working, and the redirect is meant to stay up permanently; even a visitor's saved light or dark preference carried over.
A day earlier, on 2026-08-10, the site logged a change to how it draws its lines. Most previously "OSM traced" routes had been found by inference: searching inside a corridor for a plausible path across the tracks, a method that can pick the wrong railway where two lines run side by side and can leave a line a couple of hundred metres off the real track. The new method instead looks up which OpenStreetMap route relation a train belongs to by matching the stations it calls at, since a relation lists a railway's exact sequence of stops and ways as recorded by someone who knows that line, and proximity alone cannot distinguish a service from track it merely shares. Of the 1,247 routes, 647 are matched to a single relation that covers the whole route and 176 to a chain of relations. That let 1,093 lines be redrawn; the site reports 1,098 of the candidates were the same railway as before, just drawn precisely rather than approximately, now sitting a median of four metres from OpenStreetMap track. Overall, the atlas currently draws 1,122 of its lines from a named relation and has checked 1,243 lines against real track, finding 98 per cent agreement.
Not every route was touched. Twenty-two routes were deliberately left with their previous drawing because their candidate relation would shift the line by more than a kilometre, which the site treats as a sign the relation describes a different railway rather than the same one drawn more finely; Kyiv to Lviv sits 42 km from its candidate and the Roros line 51 km, and the site says only a human reading what the relation is actually named can resolve which is true. A further 424 routes have no OpenStreetMap route relation at all, which the site attributes not to a flaw in its method but to OpenStreetMap itself lacking route-relation coverage across much of Africa, Central Asia and South America. The corrections log states that errors get fixed, usually within a day.
Beyond the map itself, the site organises its routes into curated views: a Europe train map (741 routes), a US map of Amtrak long-distance and scenic lines, 108 night/sleeper routes (with 22 sleepers noted as having returned since 2016), 53 lines ranked by altitude up to 5,072 m, 104 journeys over 1,000 km (up to 9,289 km on the Trans-Siberian), 105 cross-border routes linking 59 countries, door-to-door train-versus-plane time and CO2e comparisons across 109 European city pairs, per-country pages for 90 countries, and 670 city-to-city journey guides.
Key facts
- World Train Map is a free, solo-built interactive atlas of 1,247 train routes across 120 countries, with per-route distance, journey time, top speed, operator, rolling stock and opening year; the underlying data is downloadable as CSV, JSON and GeoJSON under CC BY 4.0.
- The site was renamed from TrainRouter to World Train Map on 2026-08-11 because the old name promised a journey planner the tool never was; every trainrouter.com link now redirects permanently to the equivalent page on the new domain.
- On 2026-08-10, 1,093 route lines were redrawn by matching each train to its OpenStreetMap route relation via the stations it calls at, replacing a corridor-search method that could pick the wrong parallel railway; the redrawn lines now sit a median of four metres from OpenStreetMap track.
- Of the 1,247 routes, 647 are matched to a single covering OSM relation and 176 to a chain of relations; the atlas now draws 1,122 of its lines from a named relation and measures 98 per cent agreement across 1,243 lines checked against real track.
- Twenty-two routes, including Kyiv-Lviv (42 km off its candidate relation) and the Roros line (51 km off), were left with their old drawing pending manual review, and 424 routes have no OpenStreetMap route relation at all, mostly across Africa, Central Asia and South America.
Why it matters
It is a rare case of a hobby project publishing hard numbers on how much a data-sourcing change improved its own accuracy: swapping corridor-search inference for authoritative OpenStreetMap route relations took the median error on redrawn lines down to four metres, from an earlier approximation the site itself describes as a couple of hundred metres off. It also doubles as an example of an honest rename, dropping a name (TrainRouter) that implied live journey planning the tool never did, in favour of one that matches what it actually is, an atlas, while keeping every old link alive through a permanent redirect.
Who it affects
Rail enthusiasts and travellers researching scenic, night, heritage, mountain or cross-border routes; anyone who bookmarked or linked to the old trainrouter.com, which keeps working unchanged; and other projects or OpenStreetMap contributors interested in relation-based route matching as an alternative to corridor-search inference, since the full route dataset is open under CC BY 4.0.
How to use it
worldtrainmap.com is free and needs no signup. Browse the full interactive map, the sortable index of all 1,247 routes, or curated views: a Europe train map (741 routes), a US map of Amtrak lines, night trains (108 routes), the highest railways (53, up to 5,072 m), the longest journeys (104, up to 9,289 km on the Trans-Siberian), international routes (105 across 59 countries), train-versus-plane comparisons (109 European city pairs) and 670 city-to-city journey guides, plus per-country pages for 90 countries. A static index page also covers users without JavaScript.
How solid is it
The site's own corrections log lays out the method change with specific figures rather than a bare claim: of 1,247 routes, 647 match a single covering OSM relation and 176 a chain of relations; 1,093 lines were redrawn, with 1,098 of the candidates identified as the same railway now drawn precisely instead of approximately, at a median of four metres from OpenStreetMap track; and the atlas currently draws 1,122 lines from a named relation, checking 1,243 lines against real track at 98 per cent agreement. The maintainer states errors are usually fixed within a day.
Risks and caveats
As a one-person project, the accuracy figures are self-reported with no independent audit. Twenty-two routes, including Kyiv-Lviv and the Roros line, were deliberately left with their older, less precise drawing because the candidate OSM relation might actually describe a different railway, something the site says only manual review can settle. A further 424 routes have no OSM route relation to draw from at all, concentrated in Africa, Central Asia and South America, so those lines still rely on the older method. The material gives no information on who built the site, when it originally launched, or any funding or business model beyond stating it is free with no signup.
“A router plans your journey; it asks where you are, where you are going and when, and hands back a departure. This is an atlas.”
— World Train Map, corrections log