A great map of Denver from 1904, showing the extant lines of the Denver City Tramway Company (DCTC) in green, with planned lines in red – rapid expansion seemed to be the name of the game!
The DCTC is unusual for a couple of reasons: it used the less common 3-foot-6-inch “colonial” narrow gauge for its lines instead of standard gauge, and referred to itself as a “tramway”, a term used almost nowhere else in the United States – streetcar or trolley normally being the terms of choice. No one seems quite sure exactly why this term was employed in Denver.
Nice, the fifth most populated city in France, recently expanded its tram network to all major districts. I designed a map to help people get around more easily.
Transit Maps says:
When I visited Nice back in 2003, it didn’t even have a tramway (which meant a lot of walking for me!), so to see an extensive system like this only 17 years later is quite amazing. The system has headways as short as four minutes, and uses on-board batteries on the T1 line to cross the Place Masséna and Place Garibaldi without unsightly overhead wires.
Robert’s map is generally neat and clean, presenting a good schematic overview of the network, but there are a few elements and design decisions that I find puzzling. First is the use of a callout box to list the stops between Ferber and Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen on the T2 line… there’s nothing special or unique about these stops that I can see, so I can only surmise that Robert simply ran out of space to fit them in conventionally. I don’t find it a very satisfactory solution, and I’d love to see if Robert could come up with a way to reconfigure things so that these stops get equal treatment with all the others.
Another strange choice is the placement of the CADAM stop at the end of T2 to the east of T3. In reality, T2 takes a turn to the west here and CADAM lies on the other side of T3. I’m not sure exactly why Robert is reluctant to show the lines in their correct relative positions here: it would improve the diagram if T3 continued in a straight line without that little jog before Méridia, and there’s plenty of room for CADAM above Digue des Français.
Hyphenating names is something I always see as a last resort – the “Termi-nal” breaks at the airport stops don’t read particularly well, and I think Robert should look for ways to avoid this if possible. While we’re on the subject of the airport, I believe that the tram is free between the terminals and the Grand Arénas stop, which would be nice to show on the map, especially for visitors to Nice.
Robert has done a great job of showing the odd layout of the Grand Arénas stop, which is really three separate platforms in fairly close proximity, each serving a completely different travel direction. Perhaps this approach could also be used at the Jean Médecin and Garabaldi interchanges, which do require some walking between the separate platforms. The indication of parklands as landmarks is nice, as is Robert’s adorable little steam train to indicate mainline SNCF services – I’d probably have them all facing the same way to keep the shape of the icon consistent, however.
Our final word: A solid effort that’s definitely very readable and usable. The seemingly arbitrary callout box for some stops is my biggest worry.
Not a heavy Metro-centric map like your usual fare, these are mostly country road coaches spanning the wide south-west of Western Australia (spanning about 1,300kms from Kalbarri to Esperance). I find it interesting to look at though, especially the reliance on different dot-dash combinations for each coach. Would be interesting to hear your thoughts.
Transit Maps says:
First things first – let’s get the pronunciation of this awkwardly styled name out of the way: it’s “Trans double-u ay”, short for “Transport Western Australia”, even though it really looks like it should be “Trans-wah”.
The next thing to note is the sheer scale of this map: it stretches over 685 km (425 miles) east to west, and 950 km (590 miles) north to south – and that’s still only the southwest quarter of the state of Western Australia! Interestingly, the map shows both rail services and long-distance coach services on the same map – the rail tends to run more frequently than the buses, which are often on a thrice-weekly schedule. While the train stations get a fairly traditional black dot to indicate stations, the bus stops get an odd little bullet point adjacent to the relevant route lines, which is not something I’ve ever seen before. It seems that this approach has been taken because the different line styles used for the bus route lines – solid, dashed, dotted, etc.) would make it difficult for any normal stop symbol to work effectively.
All these different line styles are implemented so that the routes can be colour coded into directional groups but it does make the map look very busy, and all the usual problems with dashes, etc. being interpreted as meaning “under construction” or “less service” come into play as well. As there’s only a few lines in each grouping, I’d have preferred to see variations in solid colours instead – tints and shades of the base colour would probably work just fine.
One big plus, however: the “Service Connection” marker really does indicate a location where you can get off a bus and transfer to another destination within a reasonable timeframe – a huge consideration when another bus might not be along for a couple of days!
Our final word: Perhaps an overly-complex solution to a pretty simple problem, but it does the job in the end. Two-and-half stars.
This spectacular diagram from the February 28, 1903 edition of the Street Railway Journal looks for all the world like a modern schematic diagram of the International Railway Company’s lines, but there’s a bit of a twist in the tale.
It’s actually a diagram of a telephonic dispatching system that the company was planning to install on its city and interurban lines, replacing a mixed telegraph/phone system. As telegraphs needed a skilled operator at every location, the benefits of a telephone – which almost any member of staff could readily use – were very apparent.
So instead of traditional stations along each line, the diagram instead shows the locations of these new-fangled telephones, spaced roughly a mile-and-a-half apart. Sometimes these were stations or car barns – but not always, as locations like “1/4 mile S. of Kenoche Road” attest.
The Buffalo city streetcars are arrayed out at the bottom of the diagram, spreading out from the company’s private telephone exchange in Buffalo and arranged in correct topological order, while the interurban lines pass through the the despatch (sic) board on their way to Niagara Falls, Lockport and other distant destinations. It can be noted that one of the telephones on the Niagara Falls dispatching circuit is located in the Men’s Room of the company’s Niagara Falls offices!
Our final word: A telephonic circuit diagram that almost perfectly mimics the modern transit diagram in form. Fascinating! Read the full article from the Street Railway Journal for full details about the telephone network, including a great passage about how orders were sent, repeated and confirmed to be accurate by all parties over a telephone line.
A superb cutaway map of the spectacular spiral tunnels on the Albula Railway in Switzerland, drawn for The Eagle magazine in 1952 by prolific artist Leslie Ashwell Wood.
Compare to similar spiral tunnels on the Gotthardbahn.
Hi Cameron! I was just browsing through your review archives and saw that the last time you covered Prague was in 2012 [A variety of maps were reviewed back then: full service, overview and “just right” Metro and tram – Cam]. Recently the transit authority PID (Pražská integrovaná doprava, Prague integrated transportation) released a map of a never before seen scale that I thought you might be interested in checking out. It’s displayed at information stands near metro station entrances and passengers can pick up free prints from the main railroad station. What’s unique about this map is that it includes absolutely all transit routes managed by PID (universal branding and a united fare system applies) within the limits of Prague: metro, trams, buses as well as commuter trains — and the main focus is on service frequency rather than vehicle type, which I find extremely useful. It also demonstrates the nature of a truly integrated transit system, which, for a transit advocate like me, is quite amazing! I was really wondering what your opinion on this map would be as I was personally super impressed by the author’s attention to detail (train tunnels are particularly lovely). Greetings from the Czech Republic… and keep up the amazing work! I always enjoy reading your reviews.
Transit Maps says:
Detailed maps like these are often hard to review, because I’m looking at a PDF on a screen instead of on a large printed sheet as intended by the designer – this map is meant to be on an A1 sheet (841 x 594mm or about 33.1 x 23.4 inches), so it’s big.
That said, my overall impression is that this is a comprehensive and detailed map of services in and around Prague, a commendable effort indeed. The three Metro lines are thick and bright and underpin the rest of the map – I like the use of the Metro’s distinctive “M-arrow” logo as station markers: it really helps further differentiate these lines from everything else. The other city services – tram, trolleybus, bus, ferry and funicular – are only differentiated by frequency, with thicker lines meaning “more often”. There’s no definition of actual frequency given in the legend, so the concept can only be taken as a general indication of how often things run. A secondary legend down the bottom right indicates what numbers each service type uses (1–26 for trams, 50–68 for trolleybuses, and three-digit numbers for buses), which is very handy to know. I also like the icons for the different transit modes!
While the map is intentionally and necessarily detailed, I do feel it can become overly fussy in a few places. For example, the map shows all the curves in the road that the tram lines take north of Malostranská Metro station – a particularly hilly part of town just below Prague Castle – but all it does is obscure the Metro line beneath it. Given a choice between showing the actual routing of lines and simplifying the design so that paths can be followed more easily, I’d prefer the latter in most cases. I’m undecided about the white areas in the background of the map to denote populated areas: I can see why it’s been done, but it makes the whole map look a bit patchy. I’d be interested to see a version where the inner PID zone is an all white background with the outer zone light grey – I think it would help to make the map look a bit less busy and draw attention to that central area bit more.
On a similar note, I think that raster effects are a bit overused throughout the map: water, parks, zone boundaries, bridges and more all use some kind of inner glow or drop shadow and it can get distracting, especially where two different glows interact with each other. I personally think the glow edges on the parks could be done away with to make the whole map a bit flatter and more graphical.
Our final word: An impressive attempt at a unified transit map for greater Prague. Perhaps a little too busy and fussy in parts, but could be great if it was simplified and streamlined a bit. Three-and-a-half stars!
A charmingly simple two-colour map of streetcar and interurban lines operated by the British Columbia Electric Railway Co. in 1923. Almost everything is hand-drawn and lettered apart from the map’s title, some explanatory text and some line numbers along the streets with more services (13-14-15-16 along Broadway West, for example). This last makes me wonder if this information was added to this edition of the map, either having been previously omitted or the lines servicing the street having changed.
Of interest is the way that the cartographer has made the map simpler (and easier to draw!) by only including streets within a few blocks of each line – in effect illustrating the walksheds or catchment area for this form of transit. Also, that’s a splendid north pointer at the bottom left!
Our final word: Rough around the edges, but simple and effective.
A simple little diagram of the tram lines of the Société des Tramways de Constantinople, sometime in the 1920s (probably between 1923 and 1928, when trams began running on the Asian side of the city). While it’s a little hard to see because of the clumsy shading applied, the map is actually a decent trackage diagram – showing where the network is double-tracked or has terminus loops.
The colour combinations for each line shown in the legend were also used on the headboards of the trams themselves, and generally indicated which termini the trams ran between – an aid to illiterate riders.
See also: this roughly contemporaneous diagram of the lines on a ticket (July 2013, 5 stars).
Attached is a map of available bus routes from a single stop near Sydney’s Central Station. Apologies for the image quality [Don’t worry – I straightened the image in Photoshop – Cam].
I was intrigued by the map with my first impression being that it would be very useful to tourists and visitors near Central station, with a network of routes shown but focussing on the CBD area.
But after testing a couple of hypothetical queries I noticed some design issues, including, it’s not clear which stops Town Hall is next to, finding a route number for the closer stops is confusing and suggests they should’ve used more colours instead of repeating blue, some street names are not shown (e.g. King Street and Pitt Street) likely due to an abundance of other text such as bus stop numbers (not sure of the purpose of these), and most importantly, there are no suburb names on the map. Also why is the 374 line separated from the others, as if it goes through Hyde Park, and what happens at the + of the 430/311 lines near Town Hall? Overall I found it quite useful as a Sydney resident with some background knowledge, but I fear most visitors would stumble on using this map.
Transit Maps says:
This is a very peculiar map, Felix. It’s a form of spider map, showing routes in a particular direction from particular bus stop, but it’s far more geographically oriented than most, which tend to be more diagrammatic in nature. This, I think, is where its problems begin.
From what I can work out, this map shows northbound routes only from the bus stop on Elizabeth Street at Hay Street. So every route shown (and there are nine of them!) are all travelling north on Elizabeth Street, even though the route lines span an area much, much wider than that street. The empty gap between the grey 343 and the dark blue 374 doesn’t help much, as it makes it look like the rightmost group of routes must be travelling on a different street. The only reason I can see for the gap is to get the 339 and 374 badges to line up next to each other… which is silly, as they could just be offset vertically to fit properly. Adding another badge for the 343 as part of this group would help immensely as well.
Another note on the bus number badges: in my opinion, the group heading north over the Harbour Bridge are labelled in the wrong order. From left to right, the lines as shown are the mid-blue 430, the dark blue 320, and the grey 343… but from top to bottom they’re labelled as the 320, 343 and 430. You could argue that this is in ascending numerical order, but I feel it’s always more important for the lines and numbers to correspond visually for easy reference. As it stands, the 430’s badge barely touches its corresponding route line.
The 311 took me a while to work out, but then I realised that it has a janky little route that starts at the Elizabeth Street/Hay Street stop before going out along Oxford Street and Darlinghurst Road to Elizabeth Bay and Potts Point (off the right edge of the map), before returning to the city (crossing Elizabeth Street again at Park Street) and heading up to its northern terminus in The Rocks. Weird!
It’s definitely unfortunate that three mid-blue lines run adjacent to each other along Park Street (the M50, 311 and 430), as there’s very little contrast between them. An expanded colour palette could be the solution, but Sydney wayfinding is pretty rigid in having the different transit modes distinguished by a limited set of colours – red for light rail, green for ferries, blue for buses (and everything else for trains).
The labelling for the Town Hall Station (Park Street, Stand K) and Sheraton on the Park (Elizabeth Street) stops are definitely problematic, mainly because of that gap between the Elizabeth Street routes. It really does makes it look like the two leftmost dots on Elizabeth Street belong to the Town Hall label, which is ambiguously placed. Strangely, the Martin Place and Chifley Square stops have a little joining line to “bridge the gap” on Elizabeth Street, but it seems to have been omitted here.
I’m not too concerned about the lack of suburb names on the map (which is basically just the CBD with a tiny bit of Pyrmont and Darlinghurst at the edges), but I would like to see final destinations for each of the routes that leaves the map. “Continues beyond CBD” is almost willfully unhelpful.
Our final word: In the end, I’m just puzzled as to exactly who this map is trying to help. Felix mentions tourists, but I really hope they’re not standing forlornly on Elizabeth Street trying to catch a bus into town! Regular commuters will have “their” bus route committed to memory, and don’t need all the fussy information about intermediate city stops – they just want to get on a bus and go home! And casual users are probably going to be more interested in the final destinations of the buses, and that’s not indicated here. Overall, it just seems like a map without a clear purpose or vision. Two stars.
San Francisco Muni is out with a new version of its map… now with the L&K and the T&M interlined.
Transit Maps says:
This simple little map has been prepared by Muni to illustrate necessary service changes as the Metro lines reopen after being shut down for some time due to COVID-related concerns. Whereas all the lines used to run the length of Market Street, the J now terminates at Church and Market, and the L and K lines now interline to form a single cross-town route – riders will need to change trains at West Portal to head downtown. Frequent Market Street “S” shuttle trains will supplement the N and T/M lines.
Interestingly, the L and K now share a single colour (purple) to emphasise that they now operate as a single line, but the similarly interlined T and M alternate between the two original colours along Market Street, supposedly to indicate the temporary nature of this arrangement: once the Central Subway opens, the T will be rerouted along it and the T and M will no longer be interlined. That’s a fair reason, but it still looks a little odd to use different approaches to the same information on a single map. Even more unfortunate is that the red of the T and the green of the M are almost identical for colour-blind readers (I’ve tested this in Photoshop), so they miss out on this the information entirely.
Other notes: I’ll never agree with the decision to have station labels in the same colour as the line they serve: pick one colour for every station and stick with it throughout – this approach just looks too disjointed. The reversed-out BART logo doesn’t work very well: the blue “a” disappears completely into the black background.
Our final word: Serviceable enough, but also obviously a temporary solution. Chris Smere’s unofficial version offers an interesting alternative concept.
