Author: Cameron Booth

Historical Map: New South Wales By Train Information Wheel, 1938

January 23, 2018
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I’m loving this little promotional piece produced by the New South Wales Railway Department in 1938. The user would rotate the outer ring so that a city’s name would line up with the red arrow, thus revealing various facts about that place, including which railway line it was located on and how far from Sydney it was by rail. Here, Canberra’s statistics are shown. A lovely little piece of railway ephemera. Source: National Library of […]

Submission – Official Map: MARC Commuter Rail, Maryland, late 2017

January 20, 2018
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Submitted by Lukas, who says: Hi, wanted to send you the new official map of Maryland’s MARC commuter rail system, as seen on the Maryland MTA website. I think it is a great improvement over the old system map. The map very visibly derives its thick lines and transfer station dots from the Washington DC Metro map, which I think it manages to pull off well. However, there are a few things I want to […]

Historical Map: Subways in Tokyo, 1975

January 20, 2018
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From a tourist’s map to rail transportation in and around Tokyo in 1975. This side shows the then seven subway lines of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (now the Tokyo Metro) and the three Toei lines, as well as some connecting JR and private rail lines. The reverse side shows the extensive rail network of the greater metropolitan area, but that’s a post for another time. The map itself is really a bit of a […]

New Official Map: Denver RTD Rail and Flatiron Flyer Map, 2018

January 19, 2018
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I’ve had quite a few calls to review this map over the last day or so, with people calling it “interesting”, “quite something” and just plain “bad”. It certainly continues the somewhat haphazard evolution of the system map over the last couple of years as more lines have opened, that’s for sure. Visually, it has quite a bit in common with the last iteration I reviewed a year ago, though the most obvious change is the expansion of […]

Historical Map: Adelaide Metropolitan Rail Transport System, c. 1978

January 15, 2018
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Sent my way on Twitter by Cameron Coy, this diagram of rail services radiating out from central Adelaide in South Australia isn’t anything special… except for the wonderfully and unashamedly late 1970s typography, with ITC Souvenir Bold deployed in all its curvaceous, tightly letter-spaced glory. I particularly like its use for the main Adelaide station, where the letterforms across the large station circle (intentionally?) evoke the famous London Underground roundel. It’s interesting to note all […]

Official Map: Rail Services of Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina by Sebastian Gagin

January 9, 2018
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I stumbled across this beautiful piece a while ago while trawling Behance – an integrated diagram of rail services in and around Buenos Aires. The author says that the project was developed for the city’s Secretary of Transport, so I have to assume that this is official, though I haven’t found it in use anywhere else yet. The diagram shows both the Subte subway lines (in their familiar colours) and the commuter rail lines that […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Radial São Paulo Metro Map by Nicholas Fernandes

December 22, 2017
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Submitted by Nicholas, who says: Hi Cam! Like many here, I’m a longtime fan, transit map lover, and amateur mapmaker. I am originally from São Paulo, and as you already know, not only do we lack a system comprehensive enough to meet passenger demand, but we also lack a map that is well designed and aesthetically pleasing. With more than 12 million inhabitants, São Paulo is the largest city in the Americas and daily, more […]

Submission – Unofficial Map of Rail Services in Dublin, Ireland by Simon Allen

December 22, 2017
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Submitted by Simon, who says: With the new map for the Luas tram system in Dublin being so uninspiring, I decided to try create an integrated map for Dublin’s Dart, Luas and commuter rail.  It’s a pretty indulgent map – in that I treat the Luas (tram) lines perhaps too similarly to the heavy rail lines, and the system isn’t quite complex enough to warrant a Vignelli style approach (neither do I apply his principles […]

Submission – Historical Map: Lines of the Lincoln, Nebraska Street Railway, 1892

December 16, 2017
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Submitted by Ethan, who says: Thought you might enjoy this hand-painted streetcar map of Lincoln, Nebraska from 1892 (Link to high-res PDF). I particularly enjoy the attempt at route colors and what appear to be marked stops. Transit Maps says: Oh, I definitely do enjoy this one, Ethan! From the blue background and white linework, it looks as if this may have originally been a blueprint drawing of the city that’s then been embellished by […]

Official Map – Luas Light Rail Network, Dublin, Ireland

December 14, 2017
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On the 9th of December, 2017, the Green Line of Dublin’s Luas light rail system was extended north from St. Stephen’s Green to Broombridge, providing a connection with the Red Line in the city centre. Of course, such an addition means a new map, which is always fun. Zone-based fare systems can be tricky to incorporate into transit maps, and Dublin’s taken an unusual approach, breaking the city up into large zone “blocks” that extend out […]