Author: Cameron Booth

Historical Map: Lines of the Utah Light & Traction Co., Salt Lake City, 1940

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Historical Maps

A great old map of transit from Salt Lake City, showing bus lines (in green), trolleybus lines (in red, and curiously referred to as “electric coaches”, a designation that only seems to have been used here), and the one last remaining streetcar line (in blue). Even that seems to be on its last legs, as the legend says that Line 5 could be served by “street car or gas bus”. I believe the last streetcar ran in […]

Historical Advertisement: Opening of the Eastern Suburbs Railway, Sydney, June 1979

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A full-page ad in the Daily Telegraph newspaper promoting the opening of the Eastern Suburbs line. Along with the copy promoting all the benefits – modern stations, high speed escalators and automatic turnstiles amongst them – there’s a neat little diagram that shows how the line is integrated into the wider transit network. Along with the nicely stylised City Circle, there’s also lines radiating out from the new stations to show bus connections. Of interest […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: The Aloha Trailway, Oahu, Hawaii by Tony Barnhill

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Submitted by Tony, who says: Hi, I created this map because I always wished someone would. I am not a designer, I am an IT Manager. Please let me know what you think! Transit Maps says: For an IT manager, this is a pretty accomplished effort, Tony! (And it just goes to show how little we should define ourselves by one label – everyone is capable of excelling at so many different things.) Really, this […]

Unofficial Future Map: Amsterdam Metro “Time” Diagram by Alain Lemaire

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Future Maps, Unofficial Maps

Here’s a really nicely thematic diagram of the future 2019 Amsterdam Metro, once the 52-Noord Zuid opens and the 51 gets demoted to “express tram” south of Zuid station and wil be routed around the loop to Isolatorweg instead. This is hardly the first circular Amsterdam map I’ve featured on Transit Maps (see this from way back in 2012), but I do really like the way Alain has thematically tied the whole thing together with […]

Photo: Vintage MBTA Red Line Order of Stations Sign

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Submitted by Linda, who says: MBTA Red Line Order of Stations (Harvard to Ashmont) sign on old retired Red Line car, Transit Day 2017, Seashore Trolley Museum, Kennebunkport, ME. Transit Maps says: A diagram of services along a rail line is – in its most basic form – nothing more than a list of stations served, so this sign actually works quite efficiently. It’s also similar to many railroad timetables, which read down for service […]

Historical Map: Map Showing Indianapolis as a Steam Railroad and Interurban Center, 1907

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Historical Maps, Prints Available

Here’s an absolutely wonderful diagram of rail in Indianapolis in 1907 that pares everything down to the absolute minimum required to tell the story. 43 completely evenly-spaced railroad lines (representing 18 steam lines and 25 interurbans, according to the source) enter the city, which is encircled by the aptly named Belt Railroad. The names of those 43 outer destinations spiral dramatically around the edge of the map, though the flow is perhaps broken a bit […]

Historical Map: Rotterdam Transit Map, c. 1974 by Tel Design

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Here’s another fantastic old transit diagram taken from the pages of the 1974 Graphis Diagrams annual (see also this concept Helsinki Metro map). This minimalist diagram of Rotterdam’s transit was designed by the firm Tel Design, who were also responsible for the corporate identity of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS or Dutch Railways) in the 1960s. The creative director, Gert Dumbar, formed his own design studio in 1977 and continued to do work for NS through the […]

Official Map: Railway Track Map of France, 2017

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By now, many of you will know that I’m working on reworking my diagram of TGV routes in France from 2011. While doing research, I came across this absolutely stunning track map of all railways in France, produced by Latitude-Cartagène, who were also responsible for this great diagram of transit in the Ile-de-France. Seriously, the level of detail in this is just amazing. Single-track, double-track and multiple-track lines are all shown individually, with extra differentiation […]

Submission – Official Map: GoTriangle Regional System Map, North Carolina

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 Submitted by Erik – a Transit Service Planning Supervisor at GoTriangle – who says: GoTriangle, a regional bus system in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina, just updated its system map from a mostly geographical map to this schematic version. There aren’t a lot of systems like ours in the US, so we ended up doing somewhat of a hybrid between a subway-style map and a local bus map (for example, we used thicker solid […]

Historical Map: Concept for Helsinki Metro Diagram, c. 1974

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Here’s something interesting – an early concept diagram for the Helsinki Metro that shows two lines instead of the eventual one (plus branch). It appears in the 1974 edition of Graphis Diagrams, a collection of the best informational design from around the world at the time (generally within the last year).  Stylistically, it’s almost identical to the diagram that was actually used when the Metro finally opened in 1982… it just has a whole extra […]