Railway Highlighter by Hs

Railway Highlighter shows every railway track on Google Maps, clearly and at every zoom level, coloured by track gauge or by electrification.

Google Maps shows railway lines faintly, and they disappear as soon as you zoom out. Railway Highlighter draws them on top of the map in strong colours so you can follow a line across a city, a state or a whole country. The lines stay locked to the map as you drag and zoom, and it works in satellite view too.

WHAT IT DOES

• Highlights railway tracks on Google Maps worldwide, from street level all the way out to a whole continent.
• Colours every line by its track gauge, so you can see at a glance where broad, standard, metre and narrow gauge lines run.
• Switch to Electrification view to see which lines are electrified and at what voltage.
• Shows lines under construction as dashed and proposed lines as dotted.
• Shows metro, light rail and monorail lines separately, in their own pink colours, with a switch to hide them.
• Point at any track to see its details: line name, gauge, electrification and top speed, where these are recorded.
• Narrow and metre gauge lines, such as the hill railways, stay visible even when you are zoomed far out.

GAUGE COLOURS

• Black: Broad gauge, 1,676 mm (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka)
• Teal: Iberian gauge, 1,668 mm (Spain, Portugal)
• Brown: Irish gauge, 1,600 mm
• Red: Russian gauge 1,520 mm and Finnish gauge 1,524 mm
• Purple: Standard gauge, 1,435 mm (most of Europe, China, North America, high-speed lines)
• Cyan: Cape gauge, 1,067 mm (Japan, Southern Africa, Taiwan)
• Blue: Metre gauge, 1,000 mm
• Olive: Three-foot gauge, 914 / 891 mm
• Green: Narrow gauge, 750–890 mm (for example Kalka–Shimla)
• Light green: Two-foot gauge, 597–610 mm (for example Darjeeling, Matheran)
• Orange: Other, rarer gauges (point at the line to see the exact width)
• Grey: Gauge not recorded yet

ELECTRIFICATION COLOURS

• Red: 25 kV AC (India and most modern lines)
• Green: 15 kV 16.7 Hz AC (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia)
• Blue: 3 kV DC
• Cyan: 1.5 kV DC
• Purple: Up to 1,000 V DC (metros, third rail)
• Orange: Other or unrecorded voltage
• Amber: Electrification in progress
• Black: Not electrified
• Grey: Not recorded

THINGS TO TRY

• Zoom out over India and see the whole broad gauge network in one view, with the metre and narrow gauge lines alongside.
• Visit Shimla, Ooty or Darjeeling and follow the mountain railways.
• Look at the Poland–Belarus or Spain–France border and see exactly where the gauge changes.
• Switch to Electrification view and see how much of a country's network runs on electric traction.
• Turn on the metro layer in Delhi, Mumbai or London and see how metro and main-line railways connect.

SIMPLE TO USE

Click the toolbar icon to open the settings:
- Highlight tracks: turn the extension on or off.
- Colour lines by: Gauge, Electrification or None (all tracks in black).
- Show metro and light rail: turn metro lines on or off.
- Show lines under construction and proposed lines: turn planned lines on or off.
A colour legend is shown right in the settings.

WHERE THE DATA COMES FROM

All track information comes from OpenStreetMap, the free map built by volunteers around the world. It is loaded live from OpenRailwayMap, OpenFreeMap and the OpenStreetMap Overpass service. When volunteers add a new line or correct a gauge, the change reaches the extension automatically, usually within days. If you spot a missing or wrong line, you can fix it on OpenStreetMap and everyone benefits.

An internet connection is needed. Narrow gauge lines for zoomed-out views take a few seconds to load the first time you visit an area, and are then remembered on your computer for a week.

PRIVACY

• No account, no sign-in, no tracking, no ads.
• The extension does not collect, store or send any personal data.
• To draw the tracks, it requests railway data for the part of the map you are looking at from the public map services listed above, the same way any online map loads its tiles.
• Your settings and cached track data are stored only in your own browser.

NOTES

• This is an independent project. It is not made by, endorsed by or affiliated with Google.
• Tilted 3D views are not supported; the highlighting pauses while the map is tilted.
• Track details are only as complete as OpenStreetMap. Some lines may not have their gauge or electrification recorded yet.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License. Railway data via OpenRailwayMap. Base data via OpenFreeMap.