Talk:List of railway stations in Colombia

mapa questions

Mapa of railways in Colombia as of some date presumably, showing perhaps all built railways whether operating or not? Used in Rail transport in Colombia article

In this edit, User:Djm-leighpark addressed an externally linked map, both by finding this this working link to 2007 UNHCR Map at web.archive.org and by moving it to an external links section, with skeptical edit summary stating approximately "not sure this shows railroads". Thanks! I agree with the skepticism; the legend shows that the red lines are highways, and that railroads would be indicated by a black line with tic-marks. And I cannot see any such black lines, perhaps as there might have been no operating railroads at all in Colombia or Venezuela in 2007. So I think it is not helpful. By the way there also exists mapa at right, which is used in Rail transport in Colombia article, about which I would have some questions also, but seems more likely to be showing built railway in Colombia and is probably okay to leave there. --Doncram (talk) 17:19, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

My answer is that the map that Djm-leighpark referenced does show the railways, but there are two problems with the map. The first is that the railways are the dark grey lines without tick marks, not as shown in the map key, and it's easy to confuse these with the light grey lines, which I think are secondary roads. The second is that many of the grey rail lines are obliterated by the red roads: this is indeed the case, because most of Colombia's major cities are in the mountains, so the roads and railways often run alongside each other, as there are few alternative paths through the mountains from one city to another.

Regarding the map at the right, I think these are all the rail lines that ever existed in the country. Many of these are no longer there, the track having been taken up, and none of them run passenger traffic – several of them are still used for cargo transport. Richard3120 (talk) 18:07, 13 March 2021 (UTC)