Developer builds free interactive map of 767 global train routes using open data

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A solo developer has launched TrainRouter, a free, no-signup interactive map cataloguing 767 notable train routes across 118 countries, including iconic services like the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Glacier Express. Built using React and MapLibre GL JS on OpenFreeMap vector tiles, the project required no API keys and incurs no per-tile hosting costs. Each route carries detailed metadata including distance, journey time, top speed, operator, and rolling stock, all derived from a single flat data file. To ensure search engine and AI crawler visibility, the developer pre-rendered around 1,500 static HTML pages at build time, since single-page apps are otherwise invisible to most crawlers. The project also exposes its dataset as open data, enabling queries such as ranking countries by their fastest train's average end-to-end speed rather than headline top speed.

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