Author: Cameron Booth

Historical Cutaway View: Proposed State Street Subway, Chicago, c.1940

April 13, 2017
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Here’s a fantastic (if slightly idealised) view of the then still-under-construction State Street Subway from a c.1940 postcard. This view looks northward along State Street from Adams, and shows the Monroe-Adams mezzanine. Note the direct access from the mezzanine level to the basement level of businesses on either side of State Street – now long since closed. Text on the reverse side of the postcard reads: Cut-away view of Chicago’s subway in the Central Business District. […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: Harrisburg Area Rapid Transit by James Gibbons

April 13, 2017
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Submitted by James, who says: This is a dream/concept I have for light rail transit in the Harrisburg, PA region. For a rather small metro area, there is pretty bad traffic, and oddly spaced suburban development of varying densities. I believe light rail transit in the region would spur more responsible developments and relieve traffic on both back roads and expressways, while encouraging walking. The system focuses on connecting suburban communities with the central core […]

Historical Map: Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co. Trackage Map, 1910

April 13, 2017
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What appears at first glance to be a street map of Philadelphia in the early 20th century is actually not what it seems. All this map depicts is streetcar track and mainline railroads (in traditional ticked lines), showing how incredibly dense the streetcar network was at the time, especially downtown. Interestingly, a lot of the system appears to be single-track only. Nowadays, only a few vestigial trolley lines recall the days when streetcars reigned supreme […]

Submission – Future Map: Auckland Congestion Free Network Map v2.0

April 11, 2017
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Submitted by Greater Auckland, who says: I’d like to submit our new future Auckland regional transit map for a good brutally honest frisking! We follow your blog and you’ll see more than a few design cues have been picked up from your work. This was done by Greater Auckland (formerly TransportBlog) to promote the revised Congestion Free Network Plan. This network plan takes the best parts of the official Auckland multi-decade plan – the rapid […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: Vitória Transit Network, Brazil by Frederico

April 10, 2017
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Submitted by Frederico, who says: This is a diagram for a fantasy network serving my hometown, Vitória, Brazil – my first try designing a transit map. If you showed this to a local, they would laugh at you – that’s because the city doesn’t have any type of rapid transit (not even bus lanes), even though it has almost 2 million habitants. The local government has been promising a BRT system more or less following […]

Historical Map: Underground Map at Strand Station, 1937

March 31, 2017
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Passers-by looking at a pre-H.C. Beck Underground map outside Strand station in 1937. At a glance, it looks like the Fred Stingemore map, but expanded to show the whole system (the pocket card only showed central London). Parkland also seems to have been added – the large dark blotches dotted all around the map. Source: Londonist.com

Historical Map: Proposed Franklin Street Subway Line, Chicago, 1977

March 30, 2017
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In the late 1960s, Chicago actually seriously considered knocking down the elevated parts of the “L” and replacing it all with a modern subway network. The plan originally called for multiple lines, but these got whittled down over the years for a variety of reasons – lack of funding being one of the major ones. By 1977, all that remained on the table was the Franklin Street Subway, shown in red in the handsome illustrated […]

Submission – Proposed Official Map: BaltimoreLink System Map, 2017

March 28, 2017
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Submitted by Ryan VanSickle and Christian Hurst. Ryan says: I’d like to submit the official proposed BaltimoreLINK system map.  In addition to its frequency mapping and radial design (something I haven’t seen much in official maps from transit agencies), it’s got a few features that indicate a sense of humor – monsters in Chesapeake Bay, and Lil’ Linky the advice bus.  There’s no elaborate compass rose to match the tallship and giant octopus, though. The […]

Submission – Cutaway Diagram of the Paris Métro’s Opéra Station, 1910

March 9, 2017
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Submitted by thesandpeople100, who says: Cutaway diagram of the Paris Metro’s Opera station. I came across this working on a project for a hypothetical addition to Palais Garnier but couldn’t find any information on its origin. Any ideas? Transit Maps says: A reverse image search on Google found the answer to this pretty quickly: this beautiful cutaway appeared in the July 1910 issue of Popular Mechanics. Unfortunately, this month isn’t available in Google Books’ archive of […]

Submission – Official Map: Tysons Corner, Virginia Bus Transit Options Map

March 7, 2017
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Submitted by Dan Reed, who says: Tysons Corner, Virginia is the archetypal suburban edge city and as traffic becomes unbearable, officials are hustling to get people on transit, particularly the new Silver Line with four local stops. The owners of Tysons Corner Center, one of the nation’s biggest malls and a tourist attraction in its own right, seem to have made this “spider map” showing all of the bus and rail service to and from […]