The 3d effect for me makes it look like a little toy train set. For me it is much more engaging because it resembles something I can imagine being really tangible

First time I've been to Tokyo several years back and the train networks is what amused me most about Tokyo and Japan in general. I've tried most of the trains in Japan using the heavily discounted tourist Japan Rail Pass (not available for local) including the the Sunrise train for overnight or sleeper train [1]. The private cabin of sleeper train is not covered by the Japan Rail Pass only the open cabin Nobi-Nobi seats but it's really worth it because the hotels in Japan are very expensive. The pass also excludes the fastest Shinkansen Nozomi trains.

For travelling with train (or any public transports in Japan) you can just use Google Maps and it's really Google Maps in steroid in Japan. You will know accurately in real-time all the trains and buses, and their respective arrival/departure times and even their rare occasional delays. All these real-time information are feasible because Japan contracted Hitachi company to provide the info trough the open API for other developers to access and it's very accurate. With Google Maps capabilities the integration with the real-time is just mind blowing to be experienced by any tourist, especially the Japan trains networks extreme timeliness.

I really wish someone come up with a VR or meta based game for tourist in Japan for buying souvenirs. This type of game was my favourite towards the end of 80s for shopping in London using the London Tube trains back in the Windows 2 time. It's only text based game and not real-time but it was an awesome gaming experiences nonetheless. Somehow I've forgotten the name of the game, but I think with all the 3D and real-time information available it will be a blast for the modern incarnation of the tourist souvenirs game to be based in Tokyo, or London.

It looks like the map of the game Tokyo Metro from a player's perspective. It's a big game that surprisingly fits in small box with a large map and so many pieces.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/235344/tokyo-metro

But yes, 2D would probably be easier to navigate. 3D is more fun. Maybe that's the point, and the challenge of building it.

A switch with user preference cookie might be a good idea.

one thing I find to be a nice touch is how the virtual 3D camera view tries to mimic the real-world camera view angle and position

Interfaces used in train operation facilities[1] quite different from this but are similar across systems, and this one is more or less just a visualization.

At personal levels, you either type in (time, origin, goal) into a map or a route finder app and get on trains in sequence as the app says, or do a rudimentary graph search in your head[2] and hope you don't hit 10 minute gaps between trains, which happens, but it's 10 minutes tops anyway.

1: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/corp-trains-il...

2: This shows hub and spoke model works for trains, but why not for air travel?

For air travel, the stops (airports) are the congested nodes but the way between them (air) has much more possibility.

Trains are limited onto tracks and cannot merge out of the way, so point to point more quickly exhausts route capacity. Stations are less of a constraint.

Trains also lower the cost of transferring; airplane transferring is at best a hassle and at worst an ordeal. Meanwhile, trains can literally stop across the same platform across from each other so you walk a few meters at most. Japan does this a lot, where trains are timed to facilitate such quick connections.

It does show airplanes as well.

Looks like there's a 2d version[0] but the map doesn't load (expired API key?) and it doesn't show as many lines. Can maybe be revived or adapted for your city by checking out the source [1].

[0] https://nagix.github.io/mini-tokyo/ [1] https://github.com/nagix/mini-tokyo

Looking at the speed at which the trains are moving on that map, I don't think it's real-time though.

Probably an early prototype.

That's so much better.

agreed, not very usable on phone, just tried, seems you can't change angle

Two finger swipe up changed the angle for me.

thanks