Barcelona, Spain.
Source: a l e x . k/Flickr
Photo: Find The Way
Photo: Batman Consults the Subway Map
Unofficial Map: Rail Transport of the Randstad, the Netherlands
Here’s a submission via the Transit Maps Facebook Page from reader Dave Kramer. This is a beautiful map of NS rail service within the Netherland’s Randstad region: an informal name for the conurbation of the four largest Dutch cities – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht – and the surrounding areas.With a combined population of 7.1 million, it’s one of the largest conurbations in Europe and is serviced by a comprehensive rail system.
Dave points out that the map was created in 2009, so the routes may or may not be totally accurate now (I seem to recall a Sprinter train that ran through Schiphol to Amsterdam when I was there in late 2010, but I may be wrong).
Have we been there? My sole experience with NS trains has been from Schiphol to Amsterdam Centraal and back again.
What we like: Looks fantastic. A very clean, stylish and oh-so-European diagram. The typography is particularly nice (I can even forgive the 90-degree angled type because it’s handled so deftly). Different levels of service are denoted through use of colour alone – a dangerous approach when considering color-blind users – but there’s enough contrast between those colours for it to work relatively well (I ran the map through a colour-blindness simulator to check this).
What we don’t like: Major hub stations where every train stops could benefit from an “interchange station” style marker, rather than individual dots on each line. This is especially true for all the “Centraal” stations. The final destinations of routes that leave the Randstad are labelled within the route lines themselves, which makes them a little small and hard to read.
Our rating: Excellent. 4 stars!
Source: Dave Kramer
Photo: Fahrender Netzplan
Here’s the map for Munich’s S-Bahn network… interestingly placed on the outside of a train. I like the line drawing of Munich’s distinctive skyline.
Source: NiceBastard/Flickr
Official Map: Hong Kong Light Rail, 2012
When I reviewed the map for the Hong Kong MTR back in April, I noted that the smaller, connecting, light rail system in Hong Kong’s north west wasn’t paid much attention. As seen here, it’s a complex and comprehensive system in its own right and is definitely too detailed to co-exist on one map with the MTR system.
Have we been there? No.
What we like: One of the most stylised and diagrammatic maps I’ve seen yet – and one that shows that such a map can be very effective (Although, if you rotate the map 90 degrees counter clockwise, the map does actually correspond pretty well to the physical layout of the system).
Clever integration of the MTR’s West Rail Line into the map – it is shown, but with the parts of the line that don’t interact with the light rail compressed into a tiny area of the map.
Nicely integrated bilingual labels that don’t detract from the layout of the map.
What we don’t like: I’m not a huge fan of the pastel colours for the Zone backgrounds – it makes the map look a bit rainbow-like to my eyes, although this may just be a difference in cultural perception – to my (admittedly untrained) eye, the colours in general do lend a very Chinese feeling to the map.
Our rating: A very solid diagrammatic map that fits neatly into a small, narrow space. Three-and-a-half stars.
Source: Official MTR Light Rail website
Floral Metro Map of Moscow
More gorgeous art with this delightfully arabesque take on the Moscow Metro. Love the almost organic feel to this. This is definitely art and not a usable map, despite the flowing route lines being overlaid on what seems to be an accurate street map.
Source: Petit Groupe/Flickr
Updated: Portland Unified Rail Map, September 2012
Today is the end of an era in Portland, Oregon.
TriMet, under budgetary stress, has done away with the much-loved Free Rail Zone, which allowed free travel by light rail and streetcar within the “Fareless Square” area of downtown Portland and the Lloyd Center. Not too long ago, Fareless Square also applied to buses in the same area, so the writing’s been on the wall for a while.
At the same time, TriMet has also done away with its three different fare zones, instead opting for a “go anywhere fare”, currently priced at $2.50 (A two-zone fare used to be $2.10 and a three-zone fare $2.45, so this is a fair price hike for most users of the system). However, all-day passes now only cost twice as much as a normal ticket, so they offer great value: even if you only use it to go somewhere and back, you haven’t lost out – and you have the flexibility to use it more than that if need be.
To mark this day – for better or for worse – I thought I’d update my Unified Rail Map of Portland to reflect these changes.
I’ve created two versions: one which shows MAX light rail and the Portland Streetcar as it will appear on September 22 when the Central Loop streetcar line through the inner eastside to OMSI opens, and another which adds lines currently under construction (below): the Portland-Milwaukie light rail line and the completion of the Eastside streetcar loop, both going over the new TriMet bridge that is currently taking shape in the middle of the Willamette.
Gone from the original map is the northern extension of the Yellow Line over the Columbia River into Vancouver. It’s still in early planning, and – with the way the Columbia River Crossing bridge is currently going – may very well never be built.
The removal of the zones certainly helps make the map cleaner, although it made the solid black background a bit overpowering, so I’ve knocked it back to a dark grey instead.
As usual, comments are welcome.
Photo: Ligne 12
Photo: New Portland MAX Light Rail Map!
Reporting live from the streets of Portland, Oregon, where I’ve just noticed a new map on the ticket machine at my downtown stop. These are being rolled out in preparation for the abolition of the Free Rail Zone (and ALL fare zones!) on September 1st, and I have to say that the removal of the old multi-colored zone rings is a great improvement.
The poor old streetcar still gets short shrift (now being a grey squiggle instead of its previous brown squiggle), even with the imminent opening of the Eastside loop.
Photo: Search for Delicious
There’s nothing quite like photos of people looking perplexed by transit maps.
Source: wahine_87/Flickr – link no longer active