TomTom & phantom railroads

[calcuttaman]

It seems that TomTom does a great job of adding/changing roads but really sucks when they still have railroad tracks when they haven't been there in years. In some cases its 25+ years.

How come they're still there?

 

[canderson]

It seems that TomTom does a great job of adding/changing roads but really sucks when they still have railroad tracks when they haven't been there in years. In some cases its 25+ years.

How come they're still there?

While great for RR history buffs, not useful to most of the rest of us.

I believe this information occurs in the mapping of governmental agencies long after the tracks are gone as much as anything to indicate old (and possibly still current) RR right-of-way areas. There's a mistaken belief that I've seen before that the mapping companies are all using satellite or aerial data along with field checking to produce their maps. In fact, they depend a great deal upon map data from various local and regional governments for the base data, and that's where this stuff usually shows up.

 

[pat3500]

Also, at least in Montreal, the underground subway tracks appear as railroad tracks on the map, so you can get confused as to why there are random RR tracks everywhere downtown.