A map showing the extent of the streetcar network in Montreal in 1893. Most of the lines at this time were horse-drawn, though electrification of the system had already begun. “The Rocket”, Montreal’s first electric streetcar, made its maiden journey in September 1892, and all lines were electrified by 1894.
Source: Archives de Montreal
Here’s a handsome map of electric rail transportation in and around Portland, Oregon that – somewhat curiously – I hadn’t come across before. For the most part, it correlates with my own research into the network in the 1920s, though there are two little stub lines shown that I haven’t previously seen on any other map. The first of these is a branch on the Oregon City interurban from the Gladstone stop eastwards a short distance to “Gladstone Park”, while the second branches off from Fairview on the Troutdale Division to an unnamed station next to what looks like today’s Sandy Boulevard.
Strangely, the yellow “Observation Route” seems to be made up of multiple different streetcar routes within Portland, rather than being one cohesive service. The foremost of these was the Council Crest (CC) line, which ran to an amusement park located at the highest point within the city in the southwest hills.
Also of note is the prominent display (due to the map’s unusual perspective) of the Willamette Valley Southern’s interurban line from Oregon City to Mount Angel, which is the line “controlled” (but not owned) by the electric company denoted in the text to the top right. There are lots of other interesting facts in the text, including the gross earnings of the company in 1923 – $10,825,380. The new hydroelectric power plant mentioned is the Oak Grove hydro dam on the Clackamas River, still owned by PGE to this day and still generating electricity.
In short, a superbly drawn and fascinating map from near the end of Portland’s streetcar heyday, full of historical interest.
Source: raremaps.com
I’m really enjoying this modern take on a map of the Pacific Electric’s sprawling electric streetcar network by Jake Berman. Obviously based on the period map shown (or an extremely similar one!), it retains a lot of the visual energy of the original – mainly because of the multiple angles used for both the route lines and labels. Normally, this might be something I’d find fault with, but I think it’s totally appropriate here when you consider the source material.
However, Jake’s method of showing the number of in-service tracks along each section is easier to understand… varying line thickness certainly works better than the detailed ticked and pecked lines of the old map. Showing the three main railroad divisions is a nice bit of extra information as well – an advantage of a full-colour map. Lots to look at and enjoy here!
Jake sells prints of this map here.
Submitted by Philip, who says:
I put together a map showing a redesign of Melbourne’s rail network with the newly-announced Suburban Rail Loop (SRL). Given that this is the first radial railway proposed for Melbourne for many decades, I have built the rest of the map around a central straight line of the new Loop.
More explanation and links to the map on Philip’s website.
Transit Maps says:
The recent announcement of this new underground railway connecting the outer suburbs of Melbourne certainly has people talking. This is not the first map I’ve received on the subject, and I doubt it’ll be the last.
I find this one particularly interesting because of the way that Philip has chosen to straighten out the new line – which isn’t really a “loop” as it doesn’t form a complete circuit around the city – and then diagrammatically connect the rest of the lines to it. For the most part, it holds up pretty well as a representation of the network as the SRL still runs from west to east across the map, just without the bends. Obviously, some liberties have had to be taken (the placement of the Flemington Racecourse branch being the most obvious example), but the regular grid holds the whole thing together nicely.
Philip has chosen to render the rest of the network in a uniform blue for simplicity’s sake, but I’d certainly be interested in seeing a version that uses the official colours for all the lines, as I feel it would help users orient themselves better within this unusual layout. Perhaps the line colours could stack on top of each other where they overlap, multiplying up to black through the City Loop?
Some minor thoughts: the planned station complexes at Melbourne Central/State Library and Flinders Street/Town Hall could be joined by connecting lines to indicate pedestrian transfer. In the same vein, Melbourne Central itself should be shifted off the intersection of the City Loop and the Metro Tunnel and changed to a tick, as it’s my understanding that it will not directly serve the Metro Tunnel (passengers will transfer by walking to State Library). Lines that cross but don’t interact with each other could be separated by a thin white keyline – the new line from North Melbourne to Parkville could pass “under” the line south of West Melbourne, for example.
Overall though, this is an unusual and imaginative look at a major new transportation project, nicely executed. It’s always fun to look at things with a fresh perspective, and I think the map certainly succeeds in that regard.
Source: maps.philipmallis.com
Submitted by Hugo Simonsson, who says:
The map of the Gothenburg tram (and ferry) network. I think it’s quite nice, but there’s some flaws with the huge bit of space in the top left and the complicated ferry network in the bottom left without clear routes. The choice of colours is nice and mostly clear.
Transit Maps says:
There’s actually is a reason for the odd combination of wasted space and cramped parts in this map – it’s one of a pair of maps that show the tram lines. The one Hugo mentions (first image) combines trams with ferries, while the second image combines them with the major “trunk” bus lines. In both maps, the depiction of the tram lines and the large yellow interchange circles remain almost exactly the same, and the other services are fitted in around them.
The one major difference is that on the ferry map, tram line 11 is shortened in order to squeeze the ferry routes into the bottom left of the map, and there’s a lot more water shown (for obvious reasons). Apart from that, there’s only a few minor tweaks to the tram lines in each map to accommodate the other lines. As a designer, I definitely understand this approach – using one layout for the trams shared between the two maps saves a lot of work. Overall, it works out quite well, although both maps do end up looking just a bit unbalanced because of it.
A few other notes: I don’t like the dashed lines for the bus routes – it makes the map very busy and messy (as well as under construction). Simple thinner cyan lines would have worked better. The light salmon colour for Line 13 isn’t great. Some of the curves are drawn a bit wonkily – especially the acute angle on the red Line 5 to the bottom right.
Our rating: Both are solid maps, if a little unbalanced. Nice to see maps developed as part of a unified suite. Three stars.
Source: vasttrafik.se
Submitted by Simon, who says:
My name is Simon and for a long time I have been a fan of your blog. I already sent you a couple of maps via this form, although I am not sure whether you received them. Recently, I have completed a simple map that I am quite proud of – it’s a map of the rail services of Luxembourg. Notwithstanding Jug Cerović’s fabulous Luxembourg bus map, the official map by the railway company CFL is so hideous, that I could only find this outdated version on the internet (line 80 has been withdrawn in 2016). I would be honoured if you took some time to look over it and provide some feedback to me.
I do not have much mapping experience, but I hope there are not too many beginners’ mistakes. I tried having straight lines as much as possible, which did work with lines 10, 30 and 50. The southern area of the network around Esch-sur-Alzette is a bit more complicated, so there are some angles there.
I used the colours from the official map, however I made up the line numbering scheme. The RE11 (which is actually running on line 30, blame Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate for this) is the only line that uses line numbers, although I did see a “RE60” train to Rodange once at Luxembourg station, which is why I tried to make it as close to the actual system used as possible (Lines RB61, RB62, RB63 run on the timetable routes 60A, 60B, 60C respectively). I also added the Aubange-Athus-Arlon line in Belgium, operated by SNCB/NMBS’ L13 that provides a useful link in the west, and also the German RB82 on the Upper Moselle Railway, which also serves many Luxembourgish cities and towns just across the river from Germany, such as Schengen (yes, that Schengen), and Grevenmacher.
A few things were tricky about the map, because since December, there are a few cross-Luxembourg train services on weekdays; namely the RB of lines 30 and 60, as well as the RE of lines 10 and 30 are combined, and also the RE of line 70 continues to Mersch on line 10. I’ve tried making it clear in the timetable explanation, however I am not yet totally convinced. Also, my map shows – at least a bit – the stopping pattern of RB and RE services. In and around Luxembourg City, the interchanges with the urban bus and tram system are shown by this small VDL icon, with VDL standing for Ville de Luxembourg.
The main language of the map is French, as that is what CFL mostly uses, although I provided some translations in German and English. Luxembourgish does not seem to be used by CFL at all really, apart from some ad posters and on-train announcements; also, I wouldn’t be able to write that anyways (as a German I do understand it very well though).
Transit Maps says:
Overall, this is quite a lovely effort from Simon. The simplified pentagonal layout works well, and I especially appreciate the way that the purple “70″ and green “30″ lines form a single straight axis through Luxembourg City: very neatly done. The legend seems very comprehensive, although Tumblr’s image size restrictions means that I can’t read all of it. Indication of train frequency in the legend is good information.
Labelling is perhaps a little small throughout: there’s room in most places to make it a little bigger without too much hassle. Similarly, the little “VDL” discs seem a little small and hard to make out.
The one angle that bothers me is that on the orange line between Petange and Esch/Alzette: its 45-degree tilt really sticks out when everything else is at 30/60. Personally, I’d like to see it at the same angle as the section out of Luxembourg to Bettembourg to the south-east, even if that means lengthening the straight section from Noertzange to Audun-le-Tiche to accommodate it. The country’s borders are already quite distorted by the diagrammatic treatment, so a little bit more in the busiest part of the map won’t make much difference.
Finally, the thinning out route lines where they run concurrent to each other could be a little problematic. Often, a thinner route line can be taken to mean less frequency of service in that section, especially as more and more modern transit maps incorporate frequency information. The legend mitigates this a bit, but it’s still something to be aware of. I generally prefer to run two full-thickness lines next to each other instead of halving their width to fit into the space of one.
Not your typical “map” but the game Mini Metro recently released a 1972 Vignelli-inspired map of New York. (Early Paris and London too.)
I love it. What are your thoughts?
Transit Maps says:
This update to the game has been around for a while, but I haven’t had the time to sit down and play seriously enough unlock the new “retro transit” levels. I got 999 once trying to unlock the old London map (you need 1,000!) and haven’t really played much since then. So, thanks for reminding me to go and play this awesome game again, and for showing me what one of the new maps looks like… a pretty spot-on interpretation of the real thing, even if Central Park is wider than it is tall!
A small inset diagram from a 1993 tourist map of Tokyo, showing the myriad transportation options between Tokyo and its airports. Nicely simplified, and also gives prices, as well as approximate travel times to Narita (then still officially known as “New Tokyo International Airport”). The distinctive shape made by the Yamanote and Chuo lines (a device also seen in this wonderful 1984 diagram by Richard Saul Wurman) forms the backbone of the diagram.
Source: David Rumsey Map Collection
A map of Vienna’s city rail network in 1933, showing the extensive tram (Strassenbahn) network and the Wiener Stadtbahn, which now forms part of both the U- and S-Bahn networks. Interestingly, the stations of the Stadtbahn are only denoted by two-letter abbreviations on the map, which have to be cross referenced with a legend at the top right. This is also probably one of the earliest attempts at indicating fare zones I’ve seen on a transit map.
Source: David Rumsey Map Collection
Suggested by Ricardo Tróstel on Twitter.
This is an example of a map that should be pretty simple and straightforward, but the designers have made a lot of baffling decisions along the way that work really hard to sabotage it from the inside.
For starters, the Biotrén network has two lines, but the map doesn’t indicate where either begins or ends. For the record, Line 1 runs from Mercado to Hualqui and Line 2 runs from Coronel to the main hub station at Concepción, but good luck working that out.
The stations are all colour-coded according to the municipality that they’re in, which isn’t really my thing, but it works acceptably and does add a welcome dash of colour to the map. However, the boxes are all the same size, regardless of the length of the the name… which means that “Cardenal Raúl Silva Henríquez” station has to be both abbreviated and labelled in a much smaller font size to fit. Other labels are also crammed into their boxes, though not to such a drastic degree. It all makes for a somewhat chaotic look. I’d think that colour-coding the station dots and having plain black text labels – all set at the same size – would work a lot better.
The most baffling design decision made, however, is the choice to place the whole map on a blue background that precisely matches the colour used to represent the Bió Bió River… making it look for all the world that the greater Concepción area exists on two large islands in the middle of an ocean. Really quite bizarre.
Our rating: It’s hard to screw up a system map that consists of just two routes, but this one tries really hard to do just that. Still usable… but only just. One star.
