diff --git a/ip/routel b/ip/routel
index 7056886d..09a90126 100755
--- a/ip/routel
+++ b/ip/routel
@@ -1,72 +1,62 @@
-#!/bin/sh
+#! /usr/bin/env python3
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
-
-#
-# Script created by: Stephen R. van den Berg <srb@cuci.nl>, 1999/04/18
-# Donated to the public domain.
-#
-# This script transforms the output of "ip" into more readable text.
-# "ip" is the Linux-advanced-routing configuration tool part of the
-# iproute package.
 #
+# This is simple script to process JSON output from ip route
+# command and format it.  Based on earlier shell script version.
+"""Script to parse ip route output into more readable text."""
 
-test "X-h" = "X$1" && echo "Usage: $0 [tablenr [raw ip args...]]" && exit 64
+import sys
+import json
+import getopt
+import subprocess
 
-test -z "$*" && set 0
 
-ip route list table "$@" |
- while read network rest
- do set xx $rest
-    shift
-    proto=""
-    via=""
-    dev=""
-    scope=""
-    src=""
-    table=""
-    case $network in
-       broadcast|local|unreachable) via=$network
-          network=$1
-          shift
-          ;;
-    esac
-    while test $# != 0
-    do
-       case "$1" in
-          proto|via|dev|scope|src|table)
-             key=$1
-             val=$2
-             eval "$key='$val'"
-             shift 2
-             ;;
-          dead|onlink|pervasive|offload|notify|linkdown|unresolved)
-             shift
-             ;;
-          *)
-             # avoid infinite loop on unknown keyword without value at line end
-             shift
-             shift
-             ;;
-       esac
-    done
-    echo "$network	$via	$src	$proto	$scope	$dev	$table"
- done | awk -F '	' '
-BEGIN {
-   format="%15s%-3s %15s %15s %8s %8s%7s %s\n";
-   printf(format,"target","","gateway","source","proto","scope","dev","tbl");
- }
- { network=$1;
-   mask="";
-   if(match(network,"/"))
-    { mask=" "substr(network,RSTART+1);
-      network=substr(network,0,RSTART);
-    }
-   via=$2;
-   src=$3;
-   proto=$4;
-   scope=$5;
-   dev=$6;
-   table=$7;
-   printf(format,network,mask,via,src,proto,scope,dev,table);
- }
-'
+def usage():
+    '''Print usage and exit'''
+    print("Usage: {} [tablenr [raw ip args...]]".format(sys.argv[0]))
+    sys.exit(64)
+
+
+def main():
+    '''Process the arguments'''
+    family = 'inet'
+    try:
+        opts, args = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], "h46f:", ["help", "family="])
+    except getopt.GetoptError as err:
+        print(err)
+        usage()
+
+    for opt, arg in opts:
+        if opt in ["-h", "--help"]:
+            usage()
+        elif opt == '-6':
+            family = 'inet6'
+        elif opt == "-4":
+            family = 'inet'
+        elif opt in ["-f", "--family"]:
+            family = arg
+        else:
+            assert False, "unhandled option"
+
+    if not args:
+        args = ['0']
+
+    cmd = ['ip', '-f', family, '-j', 'route', 'list', 'table'] + args
+    process = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+    tbl = json.load(process.stdout)
+    if family == 'inet':
+        fmt = '{:15} {:15} {:15} {:8} {:8}{:<16} {}'
+    else:
+        fmt = '{:32} {:32} {:32} {:8} {:8}{:<16} {}'
+
+    # ip route json keys
+    keys = ['dst', 'gateway', 'prefsrc', 'protocol', 'scope', 'dev', 'table']
+    print(fmt.format(*map(lambda x: x.capitalize(), keys)))
+
+    for record in tbl:
+        fields = [record[k] if k in record else '' for k in keys]
+        print(fmt.format(*fields))
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
diff --git a/man/man8/routel.8 b/man/man8/routel.8
index b32eeafc..b1668e73 100644
--- a/man/man8/routel.8
+++ b/man/man8/routel.8
@@ -1,17 +1,31 @@
-.TH "ROUTEL" "8" "3 Jan, 2008" "iproute2" "Linux"
+.TH ROUTEL 8 "1 Sept, 2021" "iproute2" "Linux"
 .SH "NAME"
-.LP
 routel \- list routes with pretty output format
-.SH "SYNTAX"
-.LP
-routel [\fItablenr\fP [\fIraw ip args...\fP]]
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B routel
+.RI "[ " OPTIONS " ]"
+.RI "[ " tablenr
+[ \fIip route options...\fR ] ]
+.P
+.ti 8
+.IR OPTIONS " := {"
+\fB-h\fR | \fB--help\fR |
+[{\fB-f\fR | \fB--family\fR }
+{\fBinet\fR | \fBinet6\fR } |
+\fB-4\fR | \fB-6\fR }
+
 .SH "DESCRIPTION"
 .LP
-The routel script will list routes in a format that some might consider easier to interpret
-then the ip route list equivalent.
+The routel script will list routes in a format that some might consider
+easier to interpret then the
+.B ip
+route list equivalent.
+
 .SH "AUTHORS"
 .LP
-The routel script was written by Stephen R. van den Berg <srb@cuci.nl>, 1999/04/18 and donated to the public domain.
+Rewritten by Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>.
+.br
+Original script by Stephen R. van den Berg <srb@cuci.nl>.
 .br
 This manual page was written by Andreas Henriksson  <andreas@fatal.se>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system.
 .SH "SEE ALSO"