Submission – Fantasy Map: North East Overground (neo) Bus Network, Newcastle upon Tyne by Owain

August 30, 2019
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Submitted by Owain, who says:

Love your blog. I’d really like to get your thoughts and, of course, a rating on a transit map I have created using Adobe Photoshop. It is for a fictional brand I have created called ‘neo’ (North East Overground) which ties together real express bus routes which radiate from Newcastle opon Tyne. The bus routes I have tied together under the ‘neo’ banner are a hotchpotch of different operators, ticketing and timetables, so my aim for the map was one single cohesive brand which hopefully screams simplicity.

Transit Maps says:

This is very clean and legible, Owain – nicely done! Some obvious influences would seem to be the Newcastle Metro map (the grey circle indicating the city centre) and the Manchester tram map (ticks coming out of station circles to point at labels), but you’ve given everything your own twist as well so it doesn’t look derivative. The nested curves where the “C” and “D” lines diverge in Newcastle could be drawn a little better, but everything else looks very technically sound.

The various rivers are a great way to divide the map up into regions and to quickly show the scale of the network, though I think I’d like to see curves where the River Wear changes direction, rather than hard 90-degree angles.

A legend for the symbols would be handy: you should always make everything on a map explicit, instead of assuming people know what each icon means. And although I think the map overall is great, it does take up a lot of vertical space: I think that a more compact version would be very interesting to see.

Our final word: There’s a stop called “Pity Me”! Executed nicely in a style that plays nicely with the existing Metro branding, though I think it could be compressed into a more convenient shape as an alternate version.

See: Owain’s Behance project page

Submission – Unofficial Future Map: San Diego Trolley by Ted Rosenbaum

August 28, 2019
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Submitted by Ted, who says:

When the Mid-Coast extension opens in a couple years, San Diego’s going to need a new trolley map. Their current map has some odd angles and no references to the city’s geography, so I took a shot at a new diagram that fixes those issues. I used big looping curves to fit San Diego’s more languid style, and make the connecting services more explicit. Would love to get your thoughts on my attempt.

Transit Maps says:

An interesting take on San Diego’s trolley network from Ted, which is quite good for the most part. I do like the wide, languid curves in the outer parts of the map, though it’s a bit less successful downtown where it makes a bit of a “rugby ball” shape. This makes the Green/Blue line interchange at 12th & Imperial a bit confusing with overlapping route lines, and hides the fact that the Blue and Orange lines take an L-shaped route along Park Blvd and C Street, something the official map handles pretty well.

Inclusion of connecting bus services to the airport is a nice touch, as is including the regional rail services (Coaster and the Pacific Surfliner). I do believe that the Pacific Surfliner stopped calling at Sorrento Valley last October, so that needs to be fixed on the map. Also, I’d call it the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, rather than using the somewhat obscure LOSSAN name. While LOSSAN manages the service, it’s branded as an Amtrak route and promoted to the public as such. It’s also a little unfortunate that all the route lines in this part of the map are shades of blue, especially as they also cross over each other.

Inclusion of the coastline and the US/Mexico border is a good idea, though I’d like to see the Pacific Ocean join up to both of the bays, rather than have them look like separate, unconnected bodies of water. Easier with Dan Diego Bay than Mission Bay, but I think it’d be worth it.

Submission – Unofficial Map: Circumvesuviana Lines by Harry

August 27, 2019
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Submitted by Harry, who says:

Hi Cam – I’m a big fan of your blog, been reading for years. I’ve always wanted to try designing a transit map, but hadn’t found a good system to start with (I live in NYC, which is both daunting and already done well)… until recently! I visited Sorrento in June, and had the chance to ride the Circumvesuviana from Naples to Sorrento and round-trip from Sorrento to Pompeii. Something about it captured my imagination, and since it only has 5 lines it seemed like a great first system to map. On top of that, I couldn’t find a single diagrammatic map of the entire Circumvesuviana anywhere online. There are maps that include the parts in Naples – you featured a great one in 2014 – but none of them extend to Sorrento or the other CV destinations. The official site has very low-res strip maps, Italian Wikipedia has an MS Paint sketch of the routes, and… that was it.

So here’s my take! I’d love to hear what you think, and what I can improve on. My initial idea was to base the design on intersecting circles – the blue line circling the Bay of Naples, the red/green and yellow lines in concentric rings around Vesuvius – but I couldn’t quite get the Linea 3 pink line to fit, and switched to straight lines at 45/90 degree angles. The primary goal was to map the CV lines, so I included other rail options but only within the CV map extent.

For the color scheme, there wasn’t much to go off of on the CV website. I wanted something specific to the region, so I picked colors from a photo I took of Roman frescos while I was there, and used those – it’s a little muted, but I think that’s okay since for the most part the lines are only competing with the regional rail, which I have in grey.

I debated a few different ways of showing Vesuvius, and kind of wanted to do a top down view – I ended up going with the profile, as that was the easiest to trace the shape of and have it look okay given my lack of freehand drawing experience in Illustrator.

Before I started on the diagram, I exported the routes from OpenStreetMap to Illustrator as a reference. It turned out they weren’t consistently tagged (and in a few cases tracks were missing), so that led down a rabbit hole of using Google Translate to read Italian Wikipedia and railfan sites (lestradeferrate.it was very helpful!) to correctly map out the routes and stations. Probably more research than I needed to do, but the track map was a helpful reference while creating the map!

Overall I had a lot of fun putting this together – and have a few ideas for expansions (including the metros in central and eastern Naples) or companion pieces (the SITA bus which runs from Sorrento down the Amalfi coast also does not appear to have a map).

Transit Maps says:

This is a great effort for a first attempt at a transit map, Harry, and a fun project to sink your teeth into. I rode the Circumvesuviana from Naples to the Roman ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum way back in 2003, the day after a massive transit strike hit the region, so that was memorable!

Everything is nice and clear, and the spacing between stations is excellent throughout, though I’d probably like to see the ferry terminals have their own labels or be placed closer to their respective railway stations. While I can see that they’re ever so slightly outside the area covered by this map, leaving the destinations that can be reached by ferry from Naples itself seems unfortunate. On that transit strike day, I took a very worthwhile trip from Naples to Capri, but that’s not shown as an option on this map at all.

The two unlabelled grey stations on the blue Sorrento line are a little strange. If they’re closed with no chance of being reopened in the immediate future (like Pozzano will be), then it’s probably best just to omit them.

I think the silhouette of Vesuvius is fine: the shape is very distinctive and recognisable, and it more immediately says “big volcano” than a top-down view would.

One thing I’m interested in is your line numbering for the CV lines: you only give the short Napoli to San Giorgio branch a line number (Linea 3), and from what I can see online, that’s not actually correct. The website of the CV’s operator, EAV, gives these line designations:

  • Linea 1 – Napoli to Sorrento
  • Linea 4 – Napoli to Poggiomarino
  • Linea 6 – Napoli to Sarno
  • Linea 8 – Three branches: Napoli to Acerra; Napoli to Baiano; the branch to San Giorgio

Colours are a bit vague, but Google Maps assigns them thus:

  • Linea 1 – black
  • Linea 4 – green (as yours)
  • Linea 6 – red (as yours)
  • Linea 8 to Acerra and Baiano – yellow (as yours)
  • Linea 8 to San Giorgio – purple (a little more muted than your pink)

Apart from that, there’s just a couple of minor typographical errors: “statzione” instead of “stazione”, for example.

Our final word: A really solid effort that could just be tightened up a bit more here and there. Consistency in naming the CV lines would be good. Three stars!

Historical Map: Proposal for Rapid Transit in Pittsburgh, October 1973

August 6, 2019
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A map presented as part of an overview of future rapid transit prepared by the Port Authority of Allegheny County. See the whole document here.

It’s a pretty basic thing, designed in that chunky 1970s style, but it’s interesting to compare it to what Pittsburgh has ended up building. Solid orange lines are proposed express commuter bus services, while dashed orange lines represent fixed guideway lines. If the lines are cased in black, then they are running on exclusive right-of-way. A lot of similarities can be seen here with modern-day Pittsburgh’s system of busways (some of which were funded but not built in 1973) and light rail, though they’re not identical by any means.

Ticked black lines represent commuter rail services from surrounding urban areas, which even the document itself seems to hold very little faith in, saying: “… opportunities may exist locally for revival of commuter trains on a limited basis between cities along river valleys.” Hardly a ringing endorsement! The Port Authority did operate its PATrain service between Pittsburgh’s B&O Terminal and Versailles via McKeesport from 1975 to 1989, but ridership declined sharply in the early 1980s.

The final word: Chunky and colourful, this serves as a nice accompanying graphic for the text in the brochure, but not much else. Fun to compare it to today’s network. Two-and-a-half stars.

Source: WESA 90.5FM

Official Map: Addis Ababa Light Rail, Ethiopia, 2019

August 2, 2019
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A fairly bare bones effort, probably located at the Lem Hotel station as it gets called out with a “You Are Here” red dot and is also named on the map itself.

Strangely, the map makes the somewhat odd decision to not show the blue Line 2 where it runs concurrently with the green Line 1, which makes it look like Line 1 has two separate unconnected parts. The “rotating arrows” transfer station markers at St. Lucia and Stadium stations somehow manage to be less prominent than the normal station dots, which is fairly counter-intuitive. There’s decent integration of the Amharic script for bilingual station labels, but the map’s legend is only in Amharic (fortunately, the legend isn’t really necessary for a map this simple).

At first, I thought this was a simplified diagram of the network, but a look at a geographical map of the network (below, from Wikipedia) shows that it’s actually a good representation of the real thing.

The final word: Very basic, but certainly usable. 2 stars.

Source: r/mapporn – Reddit

Historical Map: 1970 Map Showing Proposed Rio de Janeiro Metro in 1990

August 1, 2019
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A map from 1970, somenine years before the Metro opened, showing what the network was meant to look like in 1990. As things have turned out, not quite.

Although the initial segment and the “Linha Prioritária” correspond very closely to the current Metro Line 1, and parts of the dashed “Linha 1” on the map correspond somewhat to the current Line 2, the remainder is very different indeed. A crossing to Niteroi on the other side of Guanabara Bay? An extension from Saens Peña out to Jacarepagua, and an orbital line from there to Penha? And the Metro in 2019 only has 41 stations compared to the projected 54… a very different future!

Source: National Archives of Brazil/Flickr

Historical Map: Compañía General de Ferrocarriles Catalanes, 1954

July 29, 2019
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Here’s a beautiful map from 1954, showing the lines of the Compañía General de Ferrocarriles Catalanes (CGFC), the predecessor of today’s Llobregat–Anoia commuter rail line.

The map is mainly notable for its restrained use of the four colours available to it: black line work with blue, red and yellow all performing precisely one function each.

I also enjoy the economical depiction of Barcelona, which is represented solely by Montjuic, the port area and the towering Columbus Monument. Each of the major towns on the route gets a notable building as well — although the monastery at Montserrat is high above the town itself, connected to it by the famous cable car. Suria and Sallent would seem to be represented by their salt mines, major reasons for these towns to even have a rail connection.

Top marks for the lovely ornate north pointer, in perspective to boot!

Source: Terminus CET/Twitter

Fantasy Map: Los Angeles 2050 by Josh Vredevoogd

July 25, 2019
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Submitted by Josh, who says:

Hello! I’m a designer in Los Angeles excited by all the new rail infrastructure being built here. I decided to make a map showing what the Metro network might look like in 30 years assuming generous transit funding. It’s my first time designing a map this complex so I’m definitely curious for your thoughts.

The new lines are mostly built from pieces and combinations of current plans, including a finished California High-Speed Rail and a network of Bus Rapid Transit corridors. All told, this map existing would cost somewhere around $40 billion and mean 8 new capital projects, and expediting 5 projects that are currently planned for completion after 2050.

There’s more process info and other details on my site here.

Transit Maps says:

There’s a lot to like about Josh’s map, both in its design and in its optimism for the future. The network of light grey dotted lines underneath the main routes — which I originally simply took as an indication of LA’s street grid — indicates an extensive BRT network with 15-minute-or-less headways. In Josh’s future, the California High-Speed Rail is fully built out, Metrolink is electrified, and there are just 16 gas stations left in all of Los Angeles County. Quite the vision!

Design-wise, the influence of the official LA Metro map and corporate identity is hard to ignore, but I think Josh has done well to adapt and improve upon it to accommodate his concept. The downtown area is particularly clear and easy to understand, even after the addition of the Regional Connector. Turning Union Station into its own large “infobox” is a particularly smart choice — it gives the most important part of the network more prominence on the nap, and it looks much neater than trying to cobble together a lot of connected interchange icons. I also like the more natural path that the so-called Los Angeles River takes across the map: it’s always seemed just a little too straight on the official map to me since they started including it.

Minor problems: the green “parkland” areas of the background seem a little dark and heavy, and the southern branch of the gold “E” line in East LA needs a curve as it exits Atlantic station to indicate which direction trains go in, specially for inbound services (do they go towards Union Station, or are they a shuttle to Peck? It’s a little ambiguous at the moment).

The final word: Probably one of the nicest-looking “future LA” transit maps I’ve seen, and there’s been a few of them! Four stars.

Historical Map: Suburban Rail of Brisbane, Australia, c. 1980

July 10, 2019
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A simple but effective map, probably dating from late 1980 as the green Ferny Grove to Ipswich line is shown as being electrified from end to end. This work was completed in September of that year, so that’s the earliest the map could date to. It’s a little hard to see, but there’s a black “catenary line” running down the middle of the green route line with an occasional lightning bolt icon to denote the electrification.

The map uses an odd variety of non-standard angles to make everything fit together, but it’s still pretty coherent and a darn sight easier to read than the modern-day equivalent (though it doesn’t have to deal with busways or extend from Gympie in the north to the Gold Coast in the south). The freehand curve of the Exhibition line is a little at odds with the nice straight lines employed throughout the rest of the map, while some of the station labels get a bit close together on the blue line from Buranda to Norman Park. The labelling on the rest of the map is pretty good, however. Finally, the imprecise nature of the drawn geography has the unfortunate effect of placing the bayside suburbs to the east of the city a long way from the coast, which is a little odd but not a major problem.

The final word: Oddly constructed with a mish-mash of weird angles, but it somehow holds together pretty well. 3 stars.

Source: Dave Murchie/Pinterest

Historical Map/Infographic: History of the Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn, 1838–1853

July 9, 2019
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Every so often, I unexpectedly come across something that’s almost magical in its awesomeness, and this astounding data visualization/map from 1855 is one of those things. I mean, just look at how gorgeous these sample plates are:

Designed by Joseph Stummer, these pages chart the history of the Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn from its foundation in 1838 through to 1853. Each lithographic plate documents two years in astounding detail, with data shown for just about every aspect of the railway: the number of locomotives and cars of different types, revenue sources, freight carried (coal, salt, tobacco, grain, and cattle), dividends paid to shareholders and more. Injections of capital are shown as gold spilling from a cornucopia, while the beautifully drawn engines and carriages at the top of each page represent the latest rolling stock for the years shown. Even the sky behind the trains has meaning: bright sunshine represents financial success, while dark clouds indicate a downturn in the company’s fortunes. All in all, some 18 separate statistics are tracked for each year.

Best of all, there’s a small map of the network shown for each year, so you can see the expansion of the railway as time goes by. In later years, a thin red line for the burgeoning telegraph system can be seen parallel to the blue rail lines, showing how these two networks developed side-by-side in an almost symbiotic relationship. Notes at the bottom of the page outline each addition to the network as well as other historical events.

All in all, this is an astounding piece of early data visualization: beautifully presented, if almost a little overwhelming in the sheer amount of data that it includes. There’s a full page of accompanying notes in German, French and English to help readers interpret what they’re seeing. It’s definitely worth clicking on the source link below to see the whole thing in glorious high-resolution (you can even read the name plates on the locomotives!). Five stars!

Source: David Rumsey Map Collection