Template talk:Amtrak Cascades

"Improved diagram"

What I've done is show:

Whether or not the station has disabled access;
Indicate almost all water crossings;
Indicate whether the line/station is elevated, at-grade, or in a tunnel;
Indicate whether a border is crossed over water on a bridge, through a tunnel, or at-grade (no water), and;
Show connecting services stations at stations, no matter how minor they may be.

If you think that I have gone a little overboard on the bridges, I sympathize with you! Much time has gone into this makeover for the diagram. I'm not sure if I will continue to improve it further, but for now, I am publishing it here.
Ben (talk) 12:22, 19 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've been slowly making my way through the northwest Amtrak services, adding connection information to the route templates. Although this is a level of detail not found on other routes (I added a couple of tunnels, for completeness), it makes the Amtrak Cascades route diagram comparable to the size of the {{Coast Starlight}} and {{Amtrak Empire Builder}}, so I don't think you've really gone that overboard. Van Isaac_{WS Vex}^contribs 12:08, 10 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry, but I must disagree. This template is now three times longer than it was before these changes started. The primary subject of the template, the stations, have been dwarfed by rivers, icons, and connecting services. I appreciate the work that went into these changes, but we can't lose sight of the information that this template was designed to convey. Mackensen (talk) 22:12, 10 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Strongly agree with Mackensen here. For Amtrak and similar articles - where all services run over lines that may (and should) have separate articles, and often have multiple services running on a single line - geography should be minimized. Articles on services should show only stations and other elements directly important to the service pattern (like future or past routings, or where services of the same type diverge). Since it is officially designated as a future service routing, showing the Point Defiance bypass may be relevant here. Geography - like rivers, bridges, tunnels - as well as connections to other lines, stations serving other services, etc should be kept to templates for the lines. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 22:41, 10 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]