A solid mid-1980s map of Adelaide’s surprisingly extensive suburban rail network – though there’s less branch lines than seen on this 1978 map, and many of the ones shown here would disappear in the next few years, no longer seen as profitable.

The fact that all rail services are numbered allows short-turn and branch services to be easily discerned – on the green line, the 82 goes from Adelaide Station to Belair, while the 83 continues all the way out to Bridgewater, for example. Of particular note is the “cross-town” 54 route from Outer Harbor to the General Motors Holden plant at Elizabeth: this ran at shift-change times to ferry factory workers to and from the site, as did the 44 from Adelaide itself.

The map itself is simple and clear – definitely an improvement on the 1978 map – and manages to present a lot of information. In addition to the train lines, the map also shows the Glenelg tram (which then only ran into the city as far as Victoria Square) and two key bus routes: the “Bee Line” linking Victoria Square and Adelaide Station, and the Route 100 “Circle Line”. Informational call-outs also highlight timed bus connections at major interchange stations.

The designers seem to have made liberal use of Letratone (like Letraset, but for textures instead of type) on the map, both for water and the zone boundaries – a very 1980s production technique!

Our final word: For the 1980s, this really isn’t bad at all. Information-rich, and done with an absolute minimum of fuss. 3.5 stars out of 5.

Source: Neal Holmes/Twitter