Author: Cameron Booth

Historical Map: Pullman, Washington, 1911 – The Palouse Country

May 11, 2020
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This handsome birds-eye view map of eastern Washington State comes from the Pullman Primer, a prospectus put together by the Pullman Chamber of Commerce in 1911 to attract business to the city. It shows the city nestled in the foreground, surrounded by the fertile lands of the Palouse, with Seattle and Portland in the far distance. All across the plains stretch the lines of the many and varied railroad companies of the day, connecting Pullman […]

Submission – Paris Métro Map for May 11, 2020 from “Le Parisien”

May 11, 2020
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Submitted by Timur, who says: France is starting to reopen after its COVID-19 shutdown. This map shows the Métro stations that will be closed on reopening day. It seems the criterion in selecting which stations will be open and which ones closed is to try to avoid overcrowding. Map from Le Parisien, based on this map from the RATP (link no longer active – Cam). Transit Maps says: While I appreciate the intentions of the […]

Tips on Researching and Mapping Historical Rail Lines Using the Internet

May 3, 2020
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In between writing this blog, designing my own maps, and digitally restoring vintage maps, I also like to map out old, forgotten streetcar and electric interurban networks in Google Maps. I mainly do it because I want to compile information from various sources into one place and build my own coherent understanding of the networks that once existed. So far, I’ve done the streetcars and interurbans of Portland, Oregon in 1920; the interurbans of Spokane, […]

Unofficial Map: Mexico City Pocket Diagram, c. 2012

April 26, 2020
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This interesting little diagram was posted on Twitter recently and brought to my attention by some of my followers. Its owner, Moritz Bernoully, said that it was purchased with a little plastic wallet from a vendor in the Mexico City Metro in 2012 (just before Line 12 opened and made this diagram redundant), and he doesn’t think that it’s an officially-produced diagram because of that provenance. It certainly looks cheaply made, as it’s just one-colour […]

Submission – Cutaway Diagram of the Châtelet–Les Halles Station Complex, Paris, 1980s

April 25, 2020
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Here at Transit Maps, we love a good cutaway diagram of station layouts, and this one is a classic. Sent our way by David Auerbach, it shows the combined Paris Métro/RER Châtelet–Les Halles complex in Paris – a transit hub so massive that Métro Line 4 has two separate stations within it! On this diagram, the white SNCF tunnels shown as “en projet” correspond to the modern RER Line D, which began service in 1987 […]

Submission – Great Britain National Rail Route Diagram by Andrew Smithers

April 24, 2020
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Submitted by Andrew, who says: This latest version of the diagram now features correct geographic orientation at junctions. The previous maps were nodal (major stations were shown as hubs where trains can arrive and depart in any direction, sometimes reversing) to keep straight line trajectories as long as possible. See the Southampton example for then and now. The map is now more curvy with a softer less angular appearance which I believe users will prefer. […]

Official Map: Sound Transit Line Nomenclature from 2021, Seattle

April 9, 2020
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Sound Transit’s network will expand rapidly in the near future – with new Link light rail lines, extensions to the Tacoma Link streetcar and Sounder commuter rail, as well as the new Stride BRT lines along SR 523/SR 522 and I-405. With all these new services, Sound Transit has to come up with a way to identify all of them on future maps. Originally, the current Link light rail spine was going to be renamed […]

Fantasy Map: Capital Monorail, Washington DC (1960s) by Michael Tyznik

April 7, 2020
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I’m not quite sure how I missed this one when Michael posted it to Twitter back at the beginning of March, because it’s really quite wonderful. It seems to be based on a 1959 proposal by O. Roy Chalk – the then owner of D.C. Transit – for a monorail system. Chalk considered traditional rail as obsolete, while monorail represented the future: “beautiful, silent-operating… suspended on graceful pylons for the most part.” You can read […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Transit Network of Gothenburg, Sweden by Jens Svanfelt

April 6, 2020
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Submitted by Jens, who says: Made a map of the public transport network in Gothenburg, Sweden. The official one (August 2018, 3 stars) just doesn’t look very good I think. Transit Maps says: This is a lovely effort, Jens – the map certainly seems to relate the tram line routes to the real world far better than the official map, which is stretched vertically quite a lot (to fit a required space?). The typography is […]

Submission – Official Map: Bus Map of Belluno, Italy, 2020

April 3, 2020
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Submitted by Luca, who says: This is the official transit map of Belluno, Italy, made by the provider of the service, Dolomitibus. It represents the 8 bus lines operating in Belluno, each with its own color: A=Orange (Arancio), B=Blue, C=Light Blue (Celeste), etc… It’s extremely schematic, as it’s far from the real paths buses follow. For example, the Blue and the Green lines are, in the upper half of the map, represented as adjacent lines, […]