Map data (ODbL)

01Attribution and licence

The map and station data come from OpenStreetMap, which is © OpenStreetMap contributors and made available under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0. The full licence text is in LICENSE-ODbL.txt; the licence for individual contents, the Database Contents License (DbCL) 1.0, is in LICENSE-DbCL.txt. The notice shipped with the app files is LICENSE-DATA.txt.

The same attribution is shown in the app on the map and on its Map data screen. Please keep it intact if you reuse the data or show maps made from it.

02What is covered

Derivative Database. The city files that are bundled in the Tickrail app (one file per city, including names, patches, computed layout coordinates, transliterations and search keys) are a Derivative Database of OpenStreetMap in the sense of the ODbL. All of it is offered here under the ODbL.

Produced Work. What you see on the screen of the app, in screenshots and in the store listing — the metro diagrams, the route lines and the station labels drawn from those files — is a Produced Work. A Produced Work carries the attribution notice above; it is not itself licensed under the ODbL.

Not included. Your own data (home city, saved trips, ridden stations, notes, settings) is not part of the database and is never published. The app’s code, text, fonts and design are not part of the database and are not licensed here.

03Download the data

Version 1.0.0 contains the 10 city files that ship in the app. Each city folder holds the file byte for byte as bundled (.bin), a lossless JSON copy, a GeoJSON copy, the list of patches, provenance and gate reports, the format description and the licence texts. The SHA-256 below is that of the .bin file.

Download everything (ZIP, 2.1 MB) · File format description · ODbL 1.0 text · DbCL 1.0 text

The files are plain, unencrypted and unsigned data. There is no technical lock and no extra term on them beyond the ODbL.

04Share-alike and how the database is offered

Under ODbL section 4.6, anyone who publicly uses a Derivative Database or a Produced Work made from it must offer recipients a machine-readable copy of the Derivative Database, or a file describing all alterations to the original database. Tickrail meets this in the first way: the entire Derivative Database is offered here, free of charge, as the files listed above. The same files, byte for byte, are the ones in the app. Each city also has a patches.json that lists every manual patch applied to the OpenStreetMap data, and the README and format description state how the files were made.

If you publicly use this Derivative Database or a database built from a substantial part of it, the ODbL requires you to license it under the ODbL (or a compatible licence), keep the notices and credit OpenStreetMap contributors. If you only create or show maps from the data, the ODbL asks for the attribution notice, not for publishing the maps. Read the licence for the exact terms.

Individual items in the database (single facts such as a station name or position) are available under the DbCL 1.0.

05Contents of the database

• Stations, stops and interchange groups from OpenStreetMap, with OpenStreetMap identifiers.
• Lines and routes (names, colours, directions, service patterns) from OpenStreetMap relations.
• Ground geometry of tracks where it exists in OpenStreetMap.
• Computed values: schematic layout coordinates, label positions, transliterated names, search keys, estimated walking links.
• Where noted in a city’s README: labels from Wikidata (structured data, CC0) and a separate OpenStreetMap snapshot of rivers and coastline that was used only to compute the layout.

Line names, line colours and operator names appear only to identify services.

06How the files are built

The files are produced offline on the developer’s computer by a build tool that is described, not distributed. In outline:

1. An OpenStreetMap extract per city is fetched once and pinned (immutable, with its SHA-256 and the original OpenStreetMap base timestamps in provenance.json).
2. A reviewed list of patches is applied (patches.json).
3. Stations, lines and interchanges are normalised; names prefer the local name, then name:en, then a computed Latin transliteration.
4. The schematic layout is computed (next section), then labels are placed.
5. The result is written as one compact binary file per city. The format is documented in FORMAT.md; the JSON copy is its complete lossless twin.

Each city README lists the exact command, inputs and tools used, and loom-provenance.json records the layout settings and hashes. The inputs are OpenStreetMap data.

07Schematic layout: LOOM and EuroVis 2020

Schematic layouts computed with LOOM (University of Freiburg, Chair of Algorithms and Data Structures; github.com/ad-freiburg/loom), based on Bast, Brosi and Storandt, "Metro Maps on Octilinear Grid Graphs", EuroVis 2020. Tickrail is not affiliated with or endorsed by the University of Freiburg.

Citation: Hannah Bast, Patrick Brosi and Sabine Storandt, Metro Maps on Octilinear Grid Graphs, Computer Graphics Forum 39(3), EuroVis 2020, doi:10.1111/cgf.13986. LOOM is run unmodified as a separate program at build time (commit 1e47578); none of its code is in the app or in these files.

08Cities in this version

This version contains 10 cities: Berlin, Washington DC, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Mexico City, New York, Paris, Seoul, Tokyo.

Each city covers the metro or subway system named in its scope column, as far as it is mapped in OpenStreetMap at the snapshot date. Other rail modes of the same city are not included unless the scope says so, and some lines or sections may be missing or incomplete.

09Versions and snapshot date

Data snapshot: 2026-10-27. Every released data version stays online, so the files matching an installed version of the app remain available.

10No warranty, independence

The data is provided as is, without warranty of any kind (see ODbL section 7). It comes from volunteers and from automated processing, is a snapshot, and can be wrong, incomplete or out of date. Times and distances derived from it are estimates. It does not show timetables, live times, fares, disruptions or planned closures. Always check the operator’s signs, notices and accessibility information.

Tickrail is an independent app. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any transit operator, government agency or the University of Freiburg. Questions about the data or this page: [email protected].