Every Railway on Earth, Drawn by Volunteers

The science

This map is drawn from OpenStreetMap – the vast, collaborative geographic database built by hundreds of thousands of volunteers around the world. Its railway data is one of the most complete open records of the world's rail network in existence: not just mainline railways, but subways, tramlines, funiculars and even miniature railways, each traced and tagged by contributors.

Rail remains one of the most efficient ways ever devised to move people and goods, and where it runs – and where it doesn't – says a great deal about a region's economy and history.

How we turned it into a print

We drew every railway as a fine line and nothing else. The result maps the industrial world: the dense mesh of Europe, Japan and the eastern United States, against the sparse threads across Africa, South America and the Australian interior. You can read a continent's development history in the density of its lines.

The print

From our Minimal collection, The World as Railways is printed on premium paper in 70x50 cm and 100x70 cm. Data source: OpenStreetMap.