Hi! I’m currently living in Japan for a year as an exchange student, and I’ve come across many train maps here (of course), and I actually originally found your website from the JR West system map you posted many years ago. (It has been updated, with a few route changes but also more colors if you want to check it again).
Here is a picture I took of a map from inside the trains on the JR West Kakogawa Line, a suburban/rural line around Kobe and Osaka. I apologize that it’s only in Japanese, but the pictures are pretty self-explanatory and surprisingly detailed. It looks like it could be for tourism, but all the sights pictured are small local temples, official city buildings, and the like, with very few proper tourist sights. I don’t know if this map is that helpful, especially since seemed like almost all locals taking the train, but I like it and whoever made it seemed to have fun while doing so.
Transit Maps says:
I don’t think it really matters who the target market for this map is, Jason, it’s just delightful to see a bit of whimsy in transit map design. I’m particularly fond of the adorable little train heading along the line. For a smaller, semi-rural branch line like this, the lighter tone is totally appropriate and the whole thing still works perfectly well for its intended wayfinding purposes. The line is presented as a clear, straight line and interchanges with other lines are indicated clearly, with connections to other JR lines at either end, as well as to the Hōjō Line and the Shintetsu Ao Line at Ao station (the seventh station from the left).
If you look closely, you can see that there used to be another line heading towards the bottom of the map from Yakujin station (fourth from the left), but this has now been covered or painted over. This was the Miki Line, which shut down in 2008 — suggesting that this map has been in use for a good number of years, with neat alterations like this keeping it up to date.
Well, I finally went and made a map after all the years berating other maps. So I throw it to you for amusement/ridicule, etc. I’m deliberately not going to explain my design decisions in detail because I think it best to get feedback without colouring your judgement. I’ll be writing a blog on my thinking in the next week or two but I wanted to simplify and de-clutter more than anything. I’ve massively reduced vertices and changes in direction. Managed to get a diamond motif going that’s a little nod to Mr Beck’s original interchange symbol. I think a lot of station detail (accessibility, etc.) is better served in a list of stations rather than having everything on the map. This is also stage 1 of a 2 map process. I’m currently making a 3D version as a bit of an experiment. Please go gently (or not)…
Transit Maps says:
Of all the tasks a transit map maker can set themselves, I think that redesigning the London Underground diagram has to be the most thankless of all. It really doesn’t matter how good the new version might be, people are going to grumble and complain about it – purely because the original thing is so ubiquitous that anything else just looks wrong.
And to be honest, that was my first gut reaction to this map. Where’s the comforting “thermos flask” shape? What’s that giant hump doing on the Circle Line? Diamonds?? So it took me a while to settle down and analyse the map in a more detached manner, and to appreciate its qualities.
The hump that I initially found so odd is actually more reflective of the real world arrangement of the stations at that point than the real Tube Map is, and the northern ends of the Jubilee Line and the Northern Line branches are also rather neatly arranged. Mornington Crescent is in the right place! The myriad diamond shapes are a nice repeating design element, though perhaps a little contrived in a couple of places – flipping Cheshunt back down to line up with Chingford is more than a little cheaty!
I really like the “walking feet” icon Ken uses to indicate a short walk between stations (“Out of Station Interchanges” in TfL parlance). It’s cheeky, informal and relaxed – all of which makes the walk look like the easiest thing in the world to do. I’m not so convinced by his symbol to indicate connections to National Rail stations. While it’s meant to symbolise railway tracks, it’s not a particularly punchy or memorable icon and also gets applied at lots of different angles, making it a bit visually inconsistent. At Euston, the icon gets laid over the Overground line simply because there’s nowhere else for it to go! A more immediately recognisable device like a stylised silhouette of a train (even an anachronistic Monopoly-like steam train for “main line service”) could work better here. Ken said he was reluctant to use the official National Rail icon, but I really think that icon would be almost instantly identifiable to just about anyone in the UK, explanation in the map’s legend or not!
Ken uses an interesting device at terminus stations where one line folds in on another, allowing a single station dot to be used for all the lines. Some good examples can be found at Hammersmith and Ealing Broadway. It’s rather lovely and quite unique, but it doesn’t seem to be applied consistently across the map. Why use it at Hammersmith but not at Richmond, for example? There may be a rationale behind this, but I’m not seeing it at the moment.
Some of the spacing and alignment of elements towards the outer edges gets a little weird because of Ken’s desire to straighten everything as much as possible. A totally straight Central Line seems like a good idea (and very much in line with Beck’s own design principles) but it pulls Uxbridge too far south, creating some really big gaps in the northwest quadrant. Harrow-on-the-Hill and Preston Road on the Metropolitan Line are very lonely indeed, while Watford and Watford Junction (less than a mile apart in real life) are now separated by a vast chasm of empty white space. And while this is a diagram, having Reading shown as being further east than Uxbridge is just jarring.
A few spatial errors from the actual Tube Map are repeated here – Acton Main Line should sit in the middle of all the other assorted Actons, and South Tottenham should be to the south of Seven Sisters, not north. This relationship becomes important if you’re implying a walking path and bearing between them on your map because – diagram or not – you just know that some users are going to interpret it as an actual map and try to use it for general wayfinding.
Ken’s treatment of the Elizabeth Line at Farringdon and Barbican is interesting, as it implies that the line will call at both stations in turn. In reality, there’ll be a new Elizabeth Line complex halfway between the two stations, but reachable from both of them… a “Barbingdon” station, if you will. Ken’s treatment isn’t wrong, as you can get to an Elizabeth Line train from either station, but it’s not really right, either.
One thing that the official Tube Map doesn’t get much credit for is how darn legible it is. Even at the small print size of the pocket journey planner, the station labels are always quite readable. A lot of redesigned maps – this one included – have much smaller type in comparison, and this limits their real-world application to large format posters and zoomable digital formats. Reproduced at the same dimensions as the on-line TfL Tube Map, Ken’s labels are about half the size, which is pretty hard on the old eyeballs.
Our rating: I know it seems like I’m being pretty harsh on this map, but I do actually like a lot of the ideas contained within it. It’s got a good graphic style and underlying design principles which could perhaps be applied a little more consistently. Spacing and spatial arrangement of elements towards the edges could also be refined somewhat. What I really do appreciate is the willingness and boldness to try something completely different (apart from Johnston Sans, Ken doesn’t use any of TfL’s design language at all) and put it out there for everyone to see (and grumble about). And there’s obviously a deep understanding of – and affection for – this venerable design icon, as reflected in the wry note at the bottom of the map, almost exactly echoing the words on Beck’s original edition in 1933:
Another new design for an old map by Kenneth Field. We should welcome your comments.
Check out the process and design notes for this map here.
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I love the aesthetic of this YouTube (only, so far) show and love the acting and the puppets and … pretty much everything about it and seriously hope they get some sort of deal for production. I didn’t think I could love it any more until this map popped up on a behind the scenes clip. I mean, the models of the subway and farm bus were amazing but a map, too? Holy cow! So to speak. Maybe the production team have Transitmap.net in their RSS feed like I do?
Transit Maps says:
Holy cow indeed, Peter! Although the behind the scenes video only gives us this partial glimpse of Mibukiville’s Hay Ride Transit (HRT) map, it’s pretty obvious that its main source of inspiration is the 1960 “Hutchinson” London Tube Map (The square interchange markers and hard angles where the lines change direction are kind of dead giveaways when identifying this particular edition compared to other versions of the Tube Map). The cool “sunrise” HRT logo is a great touch, and some of the station names are suitably pun-tastic. My favourite would have to be “Pig-Stuy”, which is hilarious.
Yes, there’s some oddities, like the fact that some of the interchange stations don’t seem to have names attached to them, but seeing as this a background prop from a kids’ puppet show, I think we can let it slide. I actually think the attention to detail for such a minor set element is wonderful to see. Check out the video that Peter mentions below for a quick look at the map in-situ in the actual show, which looks kind of incredible.
I’ve always been fascinated with trains and tube-style maps, so I decided to make my own based on my home-town’s railroad. I found an old Official Guide which I used as my source for this map. I’d like to hear what your think of it.
Transit Maps says:
Carter says that this is his first map, and I think it’s absolutely amazing for a first effort. Even with an official route guide to help, the research and dedication needed to piece this together must have been immense! Design-wise, I really like the dead-straight trajectory that the main Chicago to New Orleans trunk line takes – a great focal point for the whole map. The stylised compression of the rest of the map works pretty well for the most part, although some of the states do take on some pretty odd shapes. An alternate solution might have been to simply point off the edge of the map towards Florida, but I do really appreciate the completeness of Carter’s approach.
Labelling is generally pretty good, although I’m never really in favour of bigger type for important stations. I feel it breaks up the flow of a map and causes more problems, spacing-wise, than it’s worth. Bolder text or even all-caps at the same point size as a regular station works better for me. The only truly problematic area for labelling is the Delta Express out of Memphis. Alternating station names on either side of a diagonal route line is very difficult to pull off effectively, and it’s quite difficult to work out which label belongs to which station.
Typographically, I’m not entirely sure that Century Gothic (a 1991 font attempting to emulate a 1970s font in Avant Garde) really evokes the right 1950s feel, but it is clear and legible. An American-style gothic like Franklin Gothic or News Gothic might work well, and perhaps tie in with the Illinois Central logo as well.
I love the completeness of the service icons at the stations – regular stop, flag stop, one-way stop, etc. – although this can be a lot of information for readers to take in at once. It’s important to make the icons as intuitive as possible, and in general, Carter’s done a good job. The last one, for a one-way flag stop, is perhaps a little too subtle in its execution to be told apart from a normal one-way stop quickly and easily. A little refinement and these should work!
Minor things: I’d move the legend away from the map and into the wide-open spaces in Arkansas, and I’d work on getting smooth curves out of stations along 45-degree routes instead of starting the angle directly from the station marker. The curves north of Clinton could be rotated 180 degrees and reused to the south of Gilman, for example.
Our rating: A labour of love, I feel, and a fantastic, ambitious effort for a first attempt at a transit map! Keep at it, Carter – revise and refine and this will be a great historical map.
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Originally I was making a map similar to my previous style of Melbourne/ Australian transport maps, but as the increasing complexity of a multi-modal map made itself clear I decided to streamline the lines, trying to balance real life corridors with more sensible and understandable map design. First I was inspired from a recent trip to Japan (amazing PT systems with manic maps to go with!) and added Line Identifiers but soon realised they would be far too cramped to fit within my station denotations. Instead I had seen others use dots within stations so inspired by that I added hollow dots for trams and solid ones for trains. I also recently added peak hour train frequencies. One major issue was combining the scales of networks in a way that had to emphasise the inner suburbs where the tram lines reside, and the extent of the suburban train network. My solution for this was to indicate small distance gaps on further reaching train lines and of course the obligatory NOT TO SCALE note in the bottom right.
Transit Maps says:
This is certainly an interesting design experiment, and it does look very striking, although I feel it’s more useful as an overview of the (future) network than as a proper wayfinding tool. The absence of any train stations/tram stops apart from interchanges and termini sees to that. However, it does work quite well in the denser downtown grid where many major interchanges get named, and I do like the bold, simple, graphic style of the map.
A few of the adjacent rail lines have pretty low contrast – the blue and purple lines in particular just seem to bleed into each other. Similarly, the large number of cased tram lines running in parallel don’t read that well as individual route lines – it just seems very busy. An alternate, if safer, solution might be thinner lines for the tram routes, but with a thin white space between each of them.
At first glance, the bullets that contain train frequency information look almost exactly like the route designation bullets, which is bound to cause confusion. It’s useful information to have on an overview map like this, but it needs to be presented in a different shape or colour to instantly visually differentiate it. In a circle? White text against a dark background? Offset from the route line with “tph” for “trains per hour” appended? There are a lot of different solutions!
Our rating: A good graphic style: chunky and bright! Needs a little work to make the information contained within more readily digestible, but a good start on a different approach.
I’ve been sworn to absolute secrecy on this project since mid-January, so I’m very excited to finally share it. Early today, Field Notes (the purveyor of beautiful memo and note books) released their latest quarterly limited edition, “Mile Marker,” with cover designs celebrating the Interstate Highway system. Included with subscriptions – and available for separate purchase on the Field Notes website – is an old-school foldable highway map, designed by me in collaboration with the Field Notes team.
Although this “Mile Marker” map is inspired by my older “Highways of the USA” map, almost everything has been completely redrawn and re-evaluated – with thicker route line weights for the smaller print size, new labelling set in all-caps Futura Bold to match the Field Notes house style, and new icons for highway route number designations. This map shows all two-digit Interstate highways as well as the “major” U.S. Numbered Highways (those ending in “0” or “1”, as defined by AASHTO*) in thinner grey lines. This struck a good balance between simplicity and complexity while allowing the map to retain its distinctive bold graphic style.
As well as the folded map, there’s also a limited number of “suitable for framing” flat press-check prints available for purchase on the Field Notes site. A true limited edition – once these are gone, there are no more!
I have to say, one of the best parts of this project was finally getting to collaborate with Jim Coudal, who has always been an amazing supporter of my work. He was the very first person to draw attention to my original “Interstates as Subway Map” poster way back in 2009, and has kept an eye on my output ever since. He had a vision for this map that I knew I could achieve, and we both worked towards that goal – the project was an absolute blast to bring to life!
*Note: U.S. 2 is considered as a “major” route, as it is the northernmost east-west U.S. Highway (there is no Highway “0”).
Here’s an interesting little infographic (clearly based off the official Translink map) that’s making the rounds on Reddit/Twitter/etc. at the moment, showing average weekday ridership on rapid transit in Vancouver, British Columbia. Created by u/Mobius_Peverell on Reddit with “Excel, GIMP, and two afternoons” (in their own words), it’s quite a striking graphic. It definitely shows the dominance of the SkyTrain, and the Canada Line in particular. However, it’s important to note that the 99 B-Line, running from UBC to Commercial-Broadway, is in fact the busiest bus route in either Canada or the United States, with an average weekday ridership of over 56,000 passengers – it just looks small in comparison to the even busier SkyTrain lines.
If there’s one improvement I’d make to this graphic, it would be the inclusion of some ridership and/or boarding numbers on the map itself. Yes, there’s a scale at the top, but it’s not easy to transfer that down to the map itself with any accuracy. The dot sizing for each station’s boarding is particularly hard to calculate mentally. As it is, the graphic lets you compare general ridership trends, but not the actual numbers behind those trends.
Jake Berman is one of those transit map design enthusiasts who are simply too prolific to note everything they do – suffice it to say that you should head over to his website and check out all the cool transit map things he makes.
However, I do have to share this map – recreating a failed attempt at a south-east Michigan rail-based rapid transit system – if only because I think that Jake has absolutely nailed the mid-1970s design aesthetic. Thick route lines with hard angles and unnecessary wobbles, all-caps station labels, all lower-case agency acronym… it’s got the lot! Nice work, Jake!
A rather adorable double page spread from this comic, showing our heroes racing to get back to their school before the vice-principal does – bike share versus taxi! The whole trip is superimposed on a “comics” version of the New York Subway Map, which is actually fairly faithful to the real thing in terms of placement of elements, though it’s been simplified a lot with the removal of the underlying street grid. A bold choice by this reality’s MTA to go with hexagons for station markers and service bullets! There’s also no visual differentiation between local and express stations here – Kings Highway on the B/Q would be a white dot in our world, for example.
Also amusing is that Prospect Park station is closed due to “superhero activity” – I wonder if our erstwhile webslinger had anything to do with that? Also, I think we can place the Brooklyn Visions campus somewhere around the intersection of Avenue U and Nostrand Avenue?
Art by Javier Garrón; Colours by David Curiel; Written by Saladin Ahmed.
It’s the end of an era in Seattle, as buses will no longer serve the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, instead being routed along surface streets above the tunnel from today onwards. The tunnel will now exclusively be used for light rail services, which will increase with the opening of East Link in the future.
To commemorate this occasion, let’s have a look at an historical map showing a time when buses previously ran on the surface downtown.
It’s a pretty simple affair, with red and blue bus routes being surprinted on top of a standard Rand McNally map of Seattle… if you look closely, you can see that black road lines continue through the middle of the circular route number bullets. The dense downtown network (with buses running along every avenue from 1st to 5th!) is almost impossible to make out, but there’s a more detailed downtown map on the reverse. It shows through the the thin paper a bit, as well as what seems to be a very large notice about only exact change being accepted to the bottom right.
Of note is the extremely dense and regular grid of routes in Ballard, and the comparative lack of routes in South Seattle. Many routes end in a little loop, so I’m guessing that these are trolleybus routes that can’t just turn around on the spot to go back the other way.
The presence of the blue “Blue Streak” express bus routes allows us to date the map even more precisely than the 1970 copyright notice at the bottom of the map. These express services commenced on September 8, 1970 with Route 41, a route that still exists today in the current King County Metro network.
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