Submission – Historical Maps: Trolleybus and Tram Diagrams of Kaliningrad, USSR, 1990

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Historical Maps

Sent my way by Kyril Negoda are these two rather delightful little diagrams of trolleybus and tram services in Kaliningrad in 1990. This was just before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, so Kaliningrad Oblast was still physically connected to the rest of the USSR, rather than being an exclave like it is today.

Stylistically, the diagrams are very similar and have a pleasant, slightly childlike feeling to them. This is aided by the lovely slightly muted colour palette – not everything on a transit map has to be screamingly bright primaries!

Of the two, the trolleybus diagram (the first image above) is perhaps slightly more successful: the design hangs together better compositionally, and the whole thing seems a little better thought out than the tram diagram. The latter suffers a little from its labels pointing in pretty much every direction, as well as the slightly inelegant shape made where lines 1 and 8 join.

Overall however, these are pretty fantastic and a great example of late Soviet transit map design. Four stars!

Source: Trolleybus diagram | Tram diagram

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