Submission – Historical Map: Victorian Passenger Rail Network, 1928 by Philip Mallis

December 10, 2019
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Submitted by Philip, who says:

I’ve designed this schematic map of what Victoria’s passenger rail network looked like in 1928. It was absolutely huge, with 114 lines and 1,185 stations.

The map is built around the seven main lines (thicker 15pt lines) with branch and other lines thinning out (10pt) to create a basic visual heirarchy. This emphasises services rather than infrastructure, as it also shows where passengers were required to interchange.

Line groups are in one of six colours according to the main line to which its timetable was aligned. For example, the Clarkfield – Lancefield Line is shown in the colour of the Bendigo Line because passengers wishing to travel on this service would take a Bendigo train to Clarkfield and change to another train bound for Lancefield. The timetables of both lines were harmonised so that waiting times were minimised.

The only exception to these rules is the Overland or ‘Adelaide Express’ as it was previously known. This is the single brown line that extends west along the Serviceton Line from Flinders Street Station. The reason for showing this separately is that it had a different stopping pattern specific to this service, and was designated as a separate line by VR (unlike the other interstate trains to Albury, Mount Gambier and Pinaroo).

It’s worth noting that despite the comprehensive scale of the network, many of these lines only had a couple of trains per week or were part of goods trains. The timetables of the period show how low the service levels were for most of these areas.

Transit Maps says:

Now this is the kind of epic historical mapping project that I can get behind! Philip’s done a great job of clearly and concisely showing this sprawling network – the decision to use just a few colours to denote the main trunk lines and their branch lines works spectacularly well, stopping the map from looking too crazy or multi-coloured. I also really like the light grey suburban lines sitting below the main route lines, providing valuable context without being too overpowering or distracting.

I’d perhaps like to see the labelling a little bigger: my own experience tells me that on massive maps like this it’s important to get type as large as you can, especially if you’re selling prints! I’d also be interested in seeing a version with coastline and the border with New South Wales, as quite a few stations (while nominally “Victorian”) are north of that boundary, and just one station – Pinnaroo – in South Australia. Showing borders could help hold the composition of the map together and provide some geographical context, but the schematic distortion may also be too great to allow this to be done convincingly.

There’s also a few minor errors here and there – the end of the suburban line at Hurstbridge extends past the terminus station dot; and the 90-degree curves between Murtoa and Jung aren’t nested properly, to name two that quickly stood out to me.

Head on over to Philip’s blog for more detail on the making of the map – a really interesting read.

Submission – Fantasy Map: Greater Northeast Corridor Maglev by Adam Susaneck

December 9, 2019
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Submitted by Adam, who says:

These are two maps I made for a class where I’m proposing a trans-national maglev through what I’m calling the “Greater Northeast Corridor.” Totally unrealistic, I know, but I’d love to get your opinion on the map!

Transit Maps says:

Oh, I do like this, Adam! When you have proposed travel times of just 18 minutes between Philadelphia and New York (as just one example), the rapid transit diagram design metaphor works pretty much perfectly, and you’ve executed things very nicely indeed. The tilted rectangle looks great, though I probably would have moved Montreal to be the last station along the top edge, rather than the first station heading downwards along the left side – it just marries up a bit better with the geographical map (which is also nicely executed) and the idea than Canada is “above” the United States.

The inclusion of connecting local services in each city is a nice touch, although it seems odd to include Canada’s Via Rail and not Amtrak as well. Surely the maglev system hasn’t supplanted it completely? New Haven should also have a CTRail logo, right? Also, the legend for the map has a dashed line for future planned routes, but that style of line doesn’t appear on the map at all: a minor nitpick.

Our final word: As Adam says, it’s highly implausible that something like this would ever get built, but at least we can dream with this great map!

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Review: New York Subway and Paris Métro Architecture and Design Maps by Blue Crow Media

December 8, 2019
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Transit Maps previously reviewed Blue Crow’s London Underground Architecture and Design Map back in 2017, and they’ve just released two new maps in the series celebrating Paris and New York’s transit systems (there’s also another map in the series for Moscow).

As before, the maps are simple but elegant in their execution, with a geographical map of the system on one side and the explanatory text and photos on the other. They come in handsome slip covers: I particularly like the die-cut Métro logo (based off one found at Franklin D. Roosevelt station) on the Paris cover.

Understandably, the text of each entry has to be kept brief because of space limitations (even more so for the Paris edition because of its need for English and French translation), but there’s always enough to attract the reader’s interest. One could certainly imagine a day spent in either of these cities finding the treasures described within. There’s a wide variety of architecture and art included ranging from all time periods, so there’s something for everyone!

As with the London edition, perhaps the only fault with these maps is that there’s not enough of a link between the two sides: the map and the text almost seem to exist as two disparate elements – slightly larger station labels on the map are the only indication that there’s accompanying text on the reverse side. However, it’s not a deal breaker in any way: if you’re planning a trip to New York or Paris and have any interest in the art, architecture or history of their transit systems, I’d definitely recommend picking up a copy!

Maps at Blue Crow’s website (UK pricing): New York | Paris

Maps on Amazon (affiliate links, US pricing): New York | Paris

Historical Map: Interurban Trips Over Vancouver, B.C. Electric Railway System, 1913

November 11, 2019
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A handsome birds-eye map of the extensive interurban electric railway network extending from Vancouver as far away as Chilliwack. An inset map shows the lines on Vancouver Island, though not terribly efficiently, as much space is devoted to showing the power transmission lines from the Jordan River power house.

There’s lots of great little details on the map, like little interurban trains running along the route lines, steam trains shown on the main line and busy docks and smoke stacks (always an indicator of industry and progress on these old maps) in and around Vancouver. My favourite bit is the way the mountains obscure the route line between Sumas and Sardis in the bottom right of the map — a lovely bit of pseudo-dimensionality that sells the “birds-eye” aspect of the map wonderfully.

Check out the source link at the bottom of the post to see the map in high-resolution, as well as the rest of the informational booklet that the map was featured in.

The final word: It’s a pity that this example of the map is in such poor physical condition (faded inks, tears and creases), because I’d put it in the Transit Maps vintage maps print collection in a heartbeat otherwise. Rather wonderful. 4 stars!

Source: University of British Columbia Open Collections

Historical Map: Transit Map of Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1969

November 8, 2019
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A simple and modernist diagram of transit services in Halifax, produced in advance of the system converting from a mix of buses and trolleybuses to all diesel buses on January 1, 1970. The disclaimer that “a full-colour map will be available shortly” seems to indicate that this particular map was somewhat of a placeholder effort until a final solution was produced.

Despite that, it’s quite handsome in its simplicity and the clear explanatory text to lower right complements the map well. The fact that there’s only a handful of routes makes it easy to follow them across the map, even though everything is the same colour.

Of note is that this is the very first transit diagram produced by renowned design firm Gottschalk+Ash.

The final word: Simple, clean modernist design. Works well because of the relative simplicity of the network. Three-and-a-half stars.

Source: Canada Modern archives

Advertisement: “Eldrivet Sedan 1902”, Västtrafik, Gothenburg, Sweden

October 16, 2019
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This is an advertisement produced by Gothenburg’s Västtrafik transit agency (see their press release here, in Swedish). The tag line translates to “Electrically powered since 1902”, with the image showing Gothenburg’s tram network in the form of an electrical circuit board. In their own words, the ad “reminds [us] that climate-smart electric vehicles are old news.”

The map is a very close facsimile of the official tram/ferry map (August 2018, 3 stars), though with the extraneous and decidedly non-electric ferry services removed and some concessions made to the media that makes up the circuit-board map. Some of the route lines have been simplified or neatened up a bit, and the microchip “interchange stations” actually seem to work better than the big circles used on the official map. The little coloured route numbers (are they LEDs?) at the end of each line are a nice touch.

Our final word: A neat concept, soundly realised. I’m pretty certain this is a photograph of a physical object rather than a computer generated rendering, which is very neat. 4 stars.

Source: Johanna Stenberg/Twitter

Official Map: Copenhagen Railways Map, 2019

October 4, 2019
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Having just reviewed Kristoffer Bæk and Pasha Omelekhin’s superb new rail map for Copenhagen (October 2019, 4.5 stars), let’s take a look at what the official map looks like with the addition of the new ring Metro line.

It’s very obviously an evolution of the existing and distinctive DSB design style (last reviewed on Transit Maps back in 2014, 4 stars), and may even use the exact same base map underneath the route lines. Apart from the ring line — which I’ll get to later — there’s a few other noteworthy design changes from the previous version, which all have both good and bad consequences.

“Lokalbaner” rail services have changed from a visually overwhelming dark purple to a mid-grey, which would be fine if it didn’t blend in so much with the (also mid-grey) background of the map. I definitely preferred the elegant two-toned light grey background of the previous version, rather than the too-contrasty mid-grey on white of this map, and it would have worked better with the “Lokalbaner” line colour, I feel.

Metro lines have been thankfully upgraded to full colour, instead of the grey lines used previously. However, there’s no attempt at mode differentiation, so the yellow M2 and F lines look identical to each other, and even cross paths at one point. Even a thin background colour outline to separate the two lines at this location could be helpful.

One thing this map is really misses in comparison with Kristoffer and Pasha’s is a comprehensive legend that clearly explains that the E, H and Bx S-tog lies only run at certain times of day: such good information that could easily fit onto this map and all its vast amount of empty space around the edge. Seriously, why is the map itself so small on the canvas? Why do we need to see so much of the Swedish coastline?

Now, onto the inclusion of the ring line. Unlike many unofficial maps, this map chooses to show it as a perfectly stylised circle, which works… but only just. Because of the generous spacing between concurrent lines, the main trunk of the S-tog network through central Copenhagen is almost half the width of the ring line circle, which means that all the stations on the ring line have to be shoved to either side to fit. This means some labels have to sit across route lines (normally to be avoided, and it’s doubly unfortunate that one of them, Poul Henningsens Plads, is one of the longest names on the map), while others like Trianglen have to be angled to avoid clashing with other station markers.

It looks me that the designers have simply moved the F line outwards along its diagonal section a bit to accommodate the circle and then have just done as best they can within the existing framework of the DSB house style. With all the extra available space on the canvas, I think a better job of respacing and resizing the map could have been done with a bit of thought and effort — the central part definitely needs more room to breathe. Goodness knows how this design is going to squeeze the M4 line in when it opens next year! I note that the size of all the labels is also slightly reduced from the previous version, another side effect of having to get all the new ring line stations to squeeze into the required space.

Our final word: Continues on with the distinctive design framework of previous maps, but with less impressive results. The ring line really seems shoehorned into a space that isn’t ready for it. Three stars.

Source: DOT website

Historical Map: Denver RTD Bus Network, 1977

October 2, 2019
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A great example of late 1970s American transit map design from Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD) with thick, chunky route lines, minimalist design sensibilities and tightly letter-spaced sans serif headings.

The map has the potential to get messy really quickly, but it’s actually all handled rather deftly and cleanly. Colour-coding differentiates between different service types (local, express, circulator and regional), and route numbers and road names are placed inside the thick route lines, which generally makes them fairly easy to follow across the map. Some of the routes do get pretty squiggly and overly detailed, but overall, this is a very credible effort at showing a comprehensive overview of a large bus network. Also, RTD is still using the exact same logo today, some 40-odd years later. Awesome.

Three-and-a-half stars out of five.

Source: Denver Public Library Digital Collections

Revised Unofficial Map: Copenhagen Rapid Transit Map by Kristoffer Bæk and Pasha Omelekhin

October 1, 2019
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Sometime after I reviewed Kristoffer’s original unified Copenhagen-area transit map (January 2019, 4 stars), he began to collaborate with Pasha Omelekhin, a designer probably most well-known for his alternative Berlin map. They’ve just released their revised map, and it’s really quite wonderful.

Designwise, it’s definitely an evolution of Kristoffer’s original map, but I can see where the collaboration has resulted in marked improvements to the map. The interchanges have a more consistent design now, one which very clearly shows the user that they’ll have to transfer between the Metro and S-Tog. The transfer lines have that very in-vogue Russian design trope of using a gradient between the two route line colours — in general, I think this element works better on bolder lines so that the gradient can be seen easily; these slender joining lines seem to be a bit thin for the effect to work well.

However, I do really like the subtle use of slightly darker variant of the route line colour around the white station dots, which really lets them pop out of the route line without being as overpowering as a black keyline or similar.

Another major improvement is the use of official route line colours throughout: Kristoffer gave new colours to the Metro lines on his previous attempt, which is a bit of a no-no. Here, simply casing the lines gives enough transit mode differentiation for the similar colours to co-exist on the same map.

Some other notes: geography is handled nicely, as is the indication of Copenhagen’s central core (very handy for tourists). Inclusion of more regional rail is good, though the spatial relationships on the outer edges of the map get distorted somewhat with their addition (Roskilde is further west than the end of the S-Tog network in real life). I kind of miss the little point of interest icons from Kristoffer’s previous map, though I can see why they’ve been omitted.

The final word: An evolution, but a good one. I think Pasha has brought a lot of design discipline and expertise to Kristoffer’s original concept, and the results speak for themselves. Four-and-a-half stars out of five.

(And is that a ghostly Little Mermaid poking in from the right edge of the map?)

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Source: A new rapid transit map of Copenhagen

Historical Map: Tourist’s Trolley Map of St. Louis and Environs, 1915

September 27, 2019
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A fairly crudely-drawn map of St. Louis’ extensive streetcar network, reaching far past the city limits to the cities of Florissant and St. Charles, as well as to the pleasures of the Meramec Highlands and Lake Park. Like many maps of St. Louis from this period, the map is oriented with north to the right so that “downtown” is literally at the bottom of the map.

Of particular note is the message at the bottom of the map, proudly proclaiming, “The ratio of fatalities in 1915 was one fatality to 89 million Passengers. A STREET CAR IS A PRETTY SAFE PLACE.” Using the total annual ridership of 356,814,595 passengers, it’s pretty simple to work out that this equates to four deaths, which is pretty safe, all things considered. Interestingly, there’s no mention of injuries, which could have been a much more substantial number.

Source: UMSL Digital Library