Historical Map: Suburban Bus Routes of Sydney, 1961

February 13, 2018
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The map on the reverse side of the previously featured diagram of downtown Sydney bus routes, showing an overview of routes throughout the city. The map even comments on its own shortcomings to the bottom left , with a disclaimer that almost apologetically states that “This map is intended only as a guide to the bus services.”

Using the same colour-coding and ambiguous naming conventions as that diagram, the map is mainly notable for highlighting the fact that a vast majority of routes ran through downtown, with only a select few crosstown or “inter-suburban” routes (denoted by a dashed purple route line). A number of northern beaches services met with ferries at Manly, and these are shown as brown dashed lines.

Also of note is the abrupt western edge of government bus services, with nothing running further west than Lidcombe, Meadowbank/Top Ryde and Epping. Private bus companies took over further out than this: even in the 1980s, I caught a Harris Park Bus #165 from Epping station to my home further up the hill towards Carlingford.

Source: National Library of Australia

Historical Map: Location of City Bus Terminals, Sydney, 1961

February 4, 2018
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A map showing the main Sydney bus terminals and the routes which ran through them from December 1961. The route designations are an uncomfortable mix of streets the buses run along downtown (Pitt and Castlereagh Street Services) and eventual destinations (Northern Suburbs Services via the Harbour Bridge), which doesn’t really help to make the system user-friendly. The extensive legend below the map helps somewhat, but it’s all somewhat arcane. In practice, you remembered where the buses you always caught left from and went there – but woe betide if you ever had to catch an unfamiliar bus from a different terminal!  

The actual signs at bus stops – see the second image – weren’t much help either, filled with many tiny little route numbers and descriptions. I hazily remember signs like these at the Eddy Avenue stop near Central Station in the late 1980s or early 1990s, so they were a mainstay of bus wayfinding in Sydney for decades.

The map itself is at least clearly drawn and overcomes some of the drawbacks of the overly-complex downtown routing because of that. The illustrations of buildings are quite charming, and the little “umbrella and bag” icon for the lost property department locations is really quite superb.

The reverse of this map shows an overview of the whole Sydney bus network, which I’ve now posted here.

Source: National Library of Australia

Submission – Fantasy Map: Los Angeles Rapid Transit – the “Tom Bradley” System by Julian

January 28, 2018
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Submitted by Julian, who says:

In the post-interurban era of Los Angeles, various proposals for a reinstatement of rail service surfaced from time to time in the political discourse. Starting in the early 60s, the plans often sought to replicate the model of the Bay Area Rapid Transit or Atlanta’s MARTA heavy rail systems. By the late 70s, the foremost proponents and planners of such a system were the then-dominant Southern California Rapid Transit District and LA mayor Tom Bradley. However a competing movement emerged that sought to more closely and cheaply reinstitute the Pacific Electric interurban system- the “new red cars”- through San Diego-style light rail technology. The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, a parallel transit planning agency convened in 1977, championed this alternative. Each agency researched and planned their own respective “starter lines”- SCRTD a route from Downtown LA to North Hollywood, LACTC one from LA to Long Beach – independently of each other. In 1980, Proposition A, a tax proposal, was put on the ballot to allocate funding to both agencies, but the map presented to voters was almost solely based on SCRTD plans, as indicated by the title “rail rapid transit system.”

In the end, both ideas won out and in 1993 light rail and heavy rail were unified to form the present-day LACMTA, relegating the RTD to history, and today the two modes continue to expand side by side. But the above map imagines a scenario where neither the LACTC nor light rail concept gained traction, and the RTD was enabled with sufficient funds to build out the proposed countywide heavy rail network, and imagines a network of routes following those on the Measure A “rail rapid transit system” diagram.

Transit Maps says:

This is a fun little “what if” map here from Julian – imagining an alternative development of rail transit in Los Angeles County to what we have now. His concept matches the corridors defined in the Proposition A map he references above, though I’m imagining that the proposed routes in his map are of his own devising.

The map is both familiar and strange, with some segments that echo reality, others that take very different routes and others that are still a long way from being built (the Sepulveda Pass, in particular). Stylistically, I’m really liking the 1970s look: all fat, chunky lines and big, round station markers. The drab olive colour of the ocean really adds to this as well. The use of the old SCRTD logo is a nice touch as well.

Historical Map: Map of Kyoto and Vicinity, 1920

January 27, 2018
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Here’s a lovely old map of Kyoto, issued by the Miyako Hotel in 1920 for the benefit of its guests. The hotel is still there almost 100 years later, now owned by the Westin Group. The interurban streetcar to Otsu that once ran down the middle of the street in front of the hotel was abandoned in 1997, replaced by the underground Tōzai Line of the Kyoto Municipal Subway.

The electric streetcars are displayed prominently on the map in red, but the five separate operating companies are represented by different arrows next to the line. An arrow with a solid black circle at its tail represents a line of the Kyoto Municipal Electric Tram Company, for example. Insets around the main map show the routes of interurban streetcars to neighbouring towns.

Designwise, I do like the delicate colour palette: all muted browns, beiges and sea greens. While some of this is due to the yellowing of old paper, I find the whole effect very pleasing and subtle.

Source: National Library of Australia

Historical Map: New South Wales By Train Information Wheel, 1938

January 23, 2018
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I’m loving this little promotional piece produced by the New South Wales Railway Department in 1938. The user would rotate the outer ring so that a city’s name would line up with the red arrow, thus revealing various facts about that place, including which railway line it was located on and how far from Sydney it was by rail. Here, Canberra’s statistics are shown. A lovely little piece of railway ephemera.

Source: National Library of Australia

Submission – Official Map: MARC Commuter Rail, Maryland, late 2017

January 20, 2018
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Submitted by Lukas, who says:

Hi, wanted to send you the new official map of Maryland’s MARC commuter rail system, as seen on the Maryland MTA website. I think it is a great improvement over the old system map. The map very visibly derives its thick lines and transfer station dots from the Washington DC Metro map, which I think it manages to pull off well. However, there are a few things I want to criticize about it, one being that the Union Station dots only partially fall within the shaded District of Columbia. Another is that, at first glance, New Carrollton, Silver Spring, and Riverdale all look like they are the same station. Finally, the Baltimore Metro and LRT lines are shown in full, but the DC Metro lines are only referenced as small Metro logos next to stations. Presumably, this is because MTA operates the Baltimore rapid transit system but not Washington’s. What do you think of the map?

Transit Maps says:

Well, it’s certainly a vast improvement over the previous official map (June 2014, 1 star), though perhaps not quite as good as the late Peter Dovak’s excellent unofficial version (July 2015, 4 stars). 

As Lukas says, the treatment of the Silver Spring, Riverdale and New Carrollton stations is unfortunate – they’re on three different lines with some distance between them in real life, so to imply they’re adjacent to each other is disingenuous to say the least. Even staggering Riverdale to sit a little lower than the other two stations would break them up a bit better.

I’m not really enamoured of the diagonal labels for the stations, but at least it’s handled consistently and probably helps in creating that WMATA Metro Map feeling that Lukas mentions. However, I think the map could definitely lose some of the smaller locality labels scattered around. Annapolis, for instance, is some 20 miles by road to the nearest MARC station, while Reston and McLean are in Virginia and not really relevant to this Maryland-based network.

The legend is comprehensive and easy to read, and I especially appreciate the indication of when each line runs – weekday peak service only on the Camden and Brunswick lines!

Our rating: Bright, chunky and cheerful. Definitely a huge step up in quality from the previous map! Three stars.

UPDATE: It’s just been pointed out to me that Harpers Ferry on the Brunswick Line should be located on the opposite bank of the Potomac, which is a pretty big error. Hoping that gets fixed soon!

Source: MTA website (PDF link)

Historical Map: Subways in Tokyo, 1975

January 20, 2018
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From a tourist’s map to rail transportation in and around Tokyo in 1975. This side shows the then seven subway lines of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (now the Tokyo Metro) and the three Toei lines, as well as some connecting JR and private rail lines. The reverse side shows the extensive rail network of the greater metropolitan area, but that’s a post for another time.

The map itself is really a bit of a mess, with lines wiggling around all over the place without much effort taken to use the schematic form to simplify the topology of the network. However, it is notable for using index numbers for all the stations, starting at “1″ on the westernmost (leftmost) station – Shibuya – on the oldest line (the Ginza line) and numbering consecutively all the way along the line. Once that line has been competed, the numbering returns to the left of the map and continues at the next number (19) on the Maranouchi Line… and so on, up to station number 152, Highashi-Ojima at the eastern end of the Toei Shinjuku line. 

These numbers are referenced in the legend to the left of the map, although the stations are ordered alphabetically rather than by index number, which makes cross-referencing a little trickier than it could be.

Also curious is the decision for the legend show which lines call at each station by the use of colour alone, which doesn’t really work for colour-deficient users of the map. Almost all of the line colours shift to very similar blues or yellows in my colour-blindness simulations in Photoshop. Admittedly, not as much thought was given to this sort of accessibility back in the 1970s.

Finally, we have to admire the handsome line illustration of the 7000-series Metro trainset (still in use today!) at the top of the map, complete with the old TRTA logo on the front door. Nice!

Source: David Rumsey Map Collection

New Official Map: Denver RTD Rail and Flatiron Flyer Map, 2018

January 19, 2018
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I’ve had quite a few calls to review this map over the last day or so, with people calling it “interesting”, “quite something” and just plain “bad”. It certainly continues the somewhat haphazard evolution of the system map over the last couple of years as more lines have opened, that’s for sure. Visually, it has quite a bit in common with the last iteration I reviewed a year ago, though the most obvious change is the expansion of the downtown section to include a detailed street grid. 

In principle, I don’t mind the concept behind this at all – this is the most complex part of the map, especially with all the added bus routes now shown – but it’s just not particularly elegant. I find myself wondering if there was a way that this central part could be represented as a circle (or magnifying glass, if you will), with the C, E and W lines circumscribing an arc around the western edge. Perhaps the zones could then be represented as concentric rings expanding out from that centre rather than the somewhat awkward shapes they currently make. I haven’t sketched this out at all, but this seems like it could be a good starting concept to me.

However, I do quite like the representation of the different parts of Union Station – the historic facade and main train hall, leading to the bus  and light rail concourses – which neatly conveys the arrangement of the different services and implies that there’s a bit of a walk from one to the other.

Not so good is the lack of directional arrows on the California/Stout one-way couplet. The bus routes get them but the light rail doesn’t? And the representation of all the different Flatiron Flyer routes (seven, count them!) as one branching dark blue route line is pretty desultory. There’s not even any markers at the various termini to indicate the start and end points of the routes: the reader has to cross reference the legend and attempt to find those stops on the map themselves. The acute angle that the W Line forms as it heads west to Golden isn’t very attractive: a softer curve here would help a lot.

Our rating: Not as bad as some are saying, but definitely not as good as it could be. I think the concept is sound, but it needs a little polishing to make it really work. Three stars.

Source: Denver RTD website

Historical Map: Adelaide Metropolitan Rail Transport System, c. 1978

January 15, 2018
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Sent my way on Twitter by Cameron Coy, this diagram of rail services radiating out from central Adelaide in South Australia isn’t anything special… except for the wonderfully and unashamedly late 1970s typography, with ITC Souvenir Bold deployed in all its curvaceous, tightly letter-spaced glory. I particularly like its use for the main Adelaide station, where the letterforms across the large station circle (intentionally?) evoke the famous London Underground roundel.

It’s interesting to note all the stations with coordinated bus service (that is, buses with services timed to coincide with the arrival and departure of trains); those within zones 1 to 5 even allow for a system transfer with a 40-cent transfer ticket – the two coach icons make this clear quite nicely. The blobby blue icon for station parking, however, might just surpass the Washington Metro’s old “boxy Volvo” as the ugliest parking icon ever.

A note on some station names. One wonders who thought abbreviating the word “Race” in “Cheltenham Race Course” as “Rce.” – thus saving no space whatsoever – was a good idea. And on the northern line out to Virginia lie the two charmingly named stations, “21.64 km” and “29.73 km”, denoting their distance from Adelaide and nothing more.

Our rating: Not an amazing map, but I love how redolent of the era it was made it is. Groovy! Three stars.

Source: Reddit