Author: Cameron Booth

Historical Map: Scenic Route of the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway, late 1930s

January 8, 2020
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Here’s a very handsome little map showing the lines of the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway from sometime in the late 1930s. By this point in time however, almost all of the routes were run by buses, making the name of the company somewhat ironic. Just two streetcar lines remain: Fields Corner to Quincy (with branches from there to Quincy Point or Houghs Neck), and Sullivan Square to Stoneham. The map itself is drawn in a […]

Historical Map: Chicago Central Area Transit Plan, 1974

December 19, 2019
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A map from on what looks like a presentation board showing the mid-1970s version of the Chicago Central Area Transit Plan. Initially planned as a whole new system of subway lines to entirely replace the Loop in downtown Chicago in the late 1960s, rising costs caused the program to be split into parts: the “Core Plan” seen here, with the balance to be built later. As it happened, none of it was ever actually constructed. […]

Historical Map: Gotthardbahn Brochure Diagram, 1957

December 18, 2019
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I absolutely love this almost abstract representation of the Gotthardbahn from a Swiss advertising brochure from 1957. Just major cities, the distinctive loops and spirals of the line (described in detail in this post from 2014) and the famous 15-kilometre-long Gotthard Tunnel shown illustratively cutting through a massive mountain. Source: Retours.eu

New Official Map: Naples Rapid Transit Map, 2019

December 16, 2019
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Transit maps for Naples have been decidedly average and piecemeal in the past (see here and here for past reviews), so it’s lovely to see this new official map presenting a fully integrated view of rapid transit in and around the city. Designed by Andrea Spinosa of CityRailways — whose Atlas of Italian Rail Transit poster we reviewed back in 2014 — this is definitely a huge step in the right direction, being much better […]

New Official Map: Singapore MRT System Map, 2019

December 11, 2019
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A design hinted at by Jug Cerovic after last year’s Transit Mapping Symposium, and seen in a photograph earlier this year has finally been made official. Here’s the new Singapore MRT map, currently only installed at the new Thomson-East Coast Line stations (Woodlands North, Woodlands and Woodlands South) but planned to be rolled out to the entire network. Of note is that the process for this redesign began way back in 2015 with a lot […]

Submission – Historical Map: Victorian Passenger Rail Network, 1928 by Philip Mallis

December 10, 2019
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Submitted by Philip, who says: I’ve designed this schematic map of what Victoria’s passenger rail network looked like in 1928. It was absolutely huge, with 114 lines and 1,185 stations. The map is built around the seven main lines (thicker 15pt lines) with branch and other lines thinning out (10pt) to create a basic visual heirarchy. This emphasises services rather than infrastructure, as it also shows where passengers were required to interchange. Line groups are […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: Greater Northeast Corridor Maglev by Adam Susaneck

December 9, 2019
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Submitted by Adam, who says: These are two maps I made for a class where I’m proposing a trans-national maglev through what I’m calling the “Greater Northeast Corridor.” Totally unrealistic, I know, but I’d love to get your opinion on the map! Transit Maps says: Oh, I do like this, Adam! When you have proposed travel times of just 18 minutes between Philadelphia and New York (as just one example), the rapid transit diagram design […]

Review: New York Subway and Paris Métro Architecture and Design Maps by Blue Crow Media

December 8, 2019
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Transit Maps previously reviewed Blue Crow’s London Underground Architecture and Design Map back in 2017, and they’ve just released two new maps in the series celebrating Paris and New York’s transit systems (there’s also another map in the series for Moscow). As before, the maps are simple but elegant in their execution, with a geographical map of the system on one side and the explanatory text and photos on the other. They come in handsome […]

Historical Map: Interurban Trips Over Vancouver, B.C. Electric Railway System, 1913

November 11, 2019
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A handsome birds-eye map of the extensive interurban electric railway network extending from Vancouver as far away as Chilliwack. An inset map shows the lines on Vancouver Island, though not terribly efficiently, as much space is devoted to showing the power transmission lines from the Jordan River power house. There’s lots of great little details on the map, like little interurban trains running along the route lines, steam trains shown on the main line and […]

Historical Map: Transit Map of Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1969

November 8, 2019
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A simple and modernist diagram of transit services in Halifax, produced in advance of the system converting from a mix of buses and trolleybuses to all diesel buses on January 1, 1970. The disclaimer that “a full-colour map will be available shortly” seems to indicate that this particular map was somewhat of a placeholder effort until a final solution was produced. Despite that, it’s quite handsome in its simplicity and the clear explanatory text to […]