Wikidata:Property proposal/Via Rail station code

Via Rail station code

Originally proposed at Wikidata:Property proposal/Transportation

   Done: VIA Rail Canada station code (P10653) (Talk and documentation)

Description	Identifier for train stations used by Via Rail
Data type	External identifier
Domain	railway station (Q55488)
Allowed values	[A-Z]{4}
Example 1	Ottawa station (Q3095844) → "OTTW"
Example 2	Union Station (Q511316) → "TRTO"
Example 3	Pacific Central Station (Q1327751) → "VCVR"
Formatter URL	https://www.viarail.ca/en/embedded/station/detail/$1
See also	Amtrak station code (P4803), https://github.com/pndurette/viastations
Distinct-values constraint	yes
Wikidata project	https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Railways

Motivation

Via Rail's station codes are shown in Wikipedia info boxes, can can be found in the barcodes of Via Rail boarding passes. In Wikidata they are currently at best represented as qualified station code (P296) statements (e.g. Union Station (Q511316)), but also appear unqualified (e.g. Ottawa station (Q3095844)) and mixed with other identifier schemes (e.g. Churchill station (Q3096230)), which makes automatic use rather complicated. Using a dedicated property would clean this up and be consistent with how other railway station identifier schemes are handled already. Volker.krause (talk) 15:17, 18 February 2022 (UTC)

Discussion

• I think there's already station code (P296) Germartin1 (talk) 03:33, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

  Using station code (P296) with an appropriate qualifier is a possible option indeed, this is for example used for train stations in Finland. However, the much more widely used approach seems to be dedicated properties instead, see e.g. UIC station code (P722), IBNR ID (P954), MTR station code (P1377), China railway TMIS station code (P1378), ESR station code (P2815), Gares & Connexions ID (P3104), UK railway station code (P4755), Amtrak station code (P4803), Indian Railways station code (P5696), Deutsche Bahn station code (P8671), Benerail station ID (P8448), SNCF Station ID (P8181). Volker.krause (talk) 16:07, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

•  Support,
  Thierry Caro Fralambert Amqui Antoine2711 (talk) Helmoony joplam QultureQc Jura YanikB Mykola Swarnyk Jimj_wpg Deror avi BeatrixBelibaste Hannes Röst Qui1che Natharchives JFVoll Denelson83 WriterRamsay
  Notified participants of WikiProject Canada —MasterRus21thCentury (talk) 23:16, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
•  Support --Fralambert (talk) 23:24, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
•  Support Deror avi (talk) 09:38, 17 April 2022 (UTC)
•  Support Qui1che (talk) 16:34, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

• @Volker.krause, Germartin1, Fralambert, Deror avi, Qui1che:  Done: VIA Rail Canada station code (P10653) —MasterRus21thCentury (talk) 18:12, 17 April 2022 (UTC)