Project: Amtrak Timeline Map, 1971-2017

November 9, 2017
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Here’s a fun little project: an interactive timeline of Amtrak’s passenger rail routes from its inauguration in 1971 through to the current day. Using the extensive Amtrak timetable archives over at the Museum of Railway Timetables (well worth a visit!), I’ve created maps in five year increments – 1971, 1976, 1981, etc. – that show the changing face of passenger rail in the United States over the last 40-plus years. Five year periods seemed to be a good compromise between showing long term trends and an awful lot of hard work. As it is, I still had to draw 12 separate maps! Similarly, the maps do indicate frequency, but only in very general categories of “Multiple Services Daily”, “Daily Service” and “Less than Daily Service”… thick, thin and dashed lines respectively.

The slideshow above allows you to compare years by clicking on the dots below the map. The slideshow doesn’t automatically advance, so you can take your time looking at each one. Flip back and forth between two different years if you want!

Some notes:

  • The first map reflects the services as advertised in Amtrak’s inaugural timetable booklet from May, 1971. As the timetable had to be prepared, printed and distributed in advance of opening day, it doesn’t reflect the fact that some railroads – notably, the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) and the Southern Railway (SOU) – decided at the eleventh hour to not join the new national rail corporation. As a result, some of the lines didn’t operate as shown on this map when Amtrak commenced service. In some cases, it took several years before these routes came under Amtrak’s full control or were abandoned completely. I decided to include this map as a reminder of the original operating plan, sort of an unfulfilled Utopian dream.
  • As a result, the second map (from July 1971) better reflects what Amtrak actually looked like in those early times, with those few holdout competing railroads also indicated in grey.
  • Because of the five year increments, it’s possible that some short-lived routes have slipped through the cracks. I apologise in advance if your favourite is missing.
  • I’ve tried my best to indicate major route changes – such as the Sunset Limited‘s 1996 change from Phoenix to Maricopa – when they’ve occurred, but please do let me know if I’ve missed any.
  • It’s very notable that changes to the network have slowed over the last 15 or so years, with only some very modest extensions and additions in that time, as well as the continued absence of the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans.
  • The 1991 map probably shows the network at its absolute zenith, with multiple routes out of Salt Lake City to the West Coast, multiple international routes to Montreal and Toronto, service to Mobile, AL and more! Note also the route to Atlantic City (now run by NJ Transit)… the 1991 timetable promotes the absolute heck out of this connection at every available opportunity.

As always, comments and corrections are most welcome!

Submission – Fantasy Map: Rapid Mass Transit of a Future Christchurch by Sam van der Weerden

October 30, 2017
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Submitted by Sam, who says:

After a year and a bit of following this blog I’ve finally decided to make my own map!

As you may know, the city of Christchurch, NZ is currently going through a massive rebuilding effort following the quakes of 2010 and 2011. There are constant conversations around what to do with the future of the city’s transport network, with talks of trains appearing here and there in media (and most recently as election promises). Soon, the crown agency Regenerate Christchurch will release a shortlist of proposals for the ‘red zoned’ land in east Christchurch, and this will likely include some form of mass transit.

Inspired by all this chatter I made a map of what I think could be the future of Christchurch’s rapid transit! I tried to make it in a 45 / 90 grid but eventually went with a 30 / 60 / 90 just because I wanted to show more detail of the bus routes. The CBD has been enlarged, but still maintains the ‘four avenues’ that surround it to make the differing scale obvious.

Transit Maps says:

Congratulations on your first map, Sam – it’s a great start and I really like quite a few things about it. First off, I think I definitely notice the influence of Jug Cerovic’s work on this… and that’s never a bad starting point. Your station markers that match the width of the lines passing through are pretty neat as well, and everything is neatly drawn. The use of 30/60-degree angles is effective and creates some nice shapes, though you could perhaps look at finding ways of making things more stylised. For example, the “W” shape the orbital line makes at the bottom is so close to being symmetrical, and the fact that it isn’t keeps catching my eye and drawing it to that area.   

However, your type is way too small and absolutely has to be larger to be legible. A general starting point is giving your letters an x-height (that is, the height of the lower-case letter “x”) that’s equal to the thickness of your route lines, so I’d start there and adjust as necessary. There’s plenty of wide open space, so enlarging the type shouldn’t be too difficult. I think you’ll find this one change will make a huge difference to the effectiveness of the map. Try printing your map out as big as you can and sticking it to a wall. Walk back a few feet and see if you can read it. If you can’t, make the type bigger!

Speaking of wide open spaces, I have to say that I think that your initial sketch map (as shown above) actually uses space more effectively. It’s more pleasingly compact in shape and yet retains the same level of information. And, even in this rough drawing, the larger hand-lettered labels show you how effective they can be.

I’d also suggest labelling major roads that the bus routes travel along to help orient users. Otherwise, the twists and turns they make just look a little random and you may as well straighten them out to make the shapes simpler.

Our rating: A great start that just needs a bit of refinement to make it sing. Bigger type is a must!

Historical Map: Imperial Airways Diagram by H.C. Beck, 1935

October 28, 2017
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Maxwell Roberts just posted about this on Twitter, and I have to share. A bit of poking around on the Internet found a slightly better image than his, so enjoy!

This is a diagram of the routes of Imperial Airways in 1935 by none other than Henry Charles Beck (yes, that H.C. Beck). I had no idea that he’d created such a diagram up until now, but it clearly bears many of the hallmarks of his work. Cleverly, he’s used different route line treatments to indicate frequency of service –weekly, twice-weekly, daily, etc. – which works well in the context of this two-colour only poster. One could say that southern Africa is a little crowded compared to the rest of the map, but it’s really the only part where there’s any real complexity: much of the rest of the diagram is a single long line of “stops”.

While I don’t know if this map was ever actually officially used by Imperial Airways in this form, it clearly serves as the direct inspiration for the schematic diagram on this poster by Laszlo Maholoy-Nagy from 1936 (September 2015, 4 stars).

Our rating: A lovely piece of airline ephemera and a rarely-seen addition to Beck’s body of work. Wonderful – 5 stars! 

Historical Map: Trolleybuses of Tallinn, Estonia, c. 2000–2012

October 28, 2017
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A stylish little diagram of trolleybus routes in the Estonian capital. It’s from later than 2000, when Line 8 was abandoned, but also from before December 2012, when Line 2 was replaced by regular buses. Today, only lines 1, 3, 4, 5 and 9 remain. Can anyone date this even more precisely?

Stylistically, the diagram reminds me a lot of these 1990 diagrams of trams and trolleybuses from Kaliningrad, with some interesting abstract shapes and a slightly rough, “hand made” feel to the whole thing. Interestingly, the diagram uses the line numbers as station markers, reinforcing which route you’re following every step of the way. It’s not an approach I’ve seen often, but on a relatively simple network like this it’s actually surprisingly effective. Having less than 10 lines certainly helps!

Despite only having eight lines, two colours get reused: lines 6 and 9 are both light blue, while lines 1 and 7 are both pink. However, these pairs of lines only cross each other instead of running parallel, so there’s no real ill effects from this approach.

Our rating: A little rough and ready, but nicely compact and very cheery. Three-and-a-half stars.

Historical Map: Trolleybus and Tram Routes of London, 1947

October 28, 2017
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Here’s an absolute gem, a surprisingly modern-looking diagram of trolleybus and tram routes in post-war London. Drawn by cartographer Fred J.H. Elston, the map employs 30-degree angles and radically straightened roads to great effect. All roads are clearly labelled, as are the different neighbourhoods of London, so orientation isn’t a problem. I also really like the way all the bridges are shown crossing the Thames: another effective orientation method.

Underground and main line stations are denoted by a small blue roundel and a black diamond respectively, though the lines between the stations aren’t indicated – which gives the outer edges of the map a bit of “connect the dots” feel with blue roundels seemingly just scattered around.

Even the route number bullets serve a purpose – each different colour and shape indicates which day different routes run on. For example, a white circle indicates a route that runs all day, while a red square means the route runs on Saturday and Sundays only. A blue square indicates all-night routes. Though I have to say that I’m a little confused as to what the difference between “Weekdays Only” and “Monday to Friday Only” is. There’s obviously some subtle thing that I’m not picking up on, but I’ve got no idea what that is.

EDIT: Thanks to those suggesting that in 1947 a “weekday” could mean Monday through Saturday; that could explain the difference.

Our rating: Seems to have more in common with modern best practices for transit diagrams than with something that’s now 70 years old. Quite wonderful: 5 stars.

Historical Map: Lines of the Utah Light & Traction Co., Salt Lake City, 1940

October 27, 2017
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A great old map of transit from Salt Lake City, showing bus lines (in green), trolleybus lines (in red, and curiously referred to as “electric coaches”, a designation that only seems to have been used here), and the one last remaining streetcar line (in blue). Even that seems to be on its last legs, as the legend says that Line 5 could be served by “street car or gas bus”. I believe the last streetcar ran in 1946 – that is, until the UTA’s S-Line opened in 2013.

The map certainly highlights Salt Lake City’s rigid street grid, though it wisely omits showing all the cross streets without service, simply naming them instead. In effect, it mimics a modern rail-based transit map, as the street names would also almost certainly indicate stops as well.

Though the map is dated to 1940, this particular example seems to have seen use to a later date. Someone has made hand-drawn edits to routes 18 and 19 to the upper left of the map, reflecting service changes made after the map’s issue. 

Also of note are the UL&T Co. car barns, seen at the intersection of 5th South and 7th East, which have now been incorporated into the fabric of the aptly-named Trolley Square shopping mall.

Our rating: A great little slice of Utah history, and quite a handsome map as well. Four stars.

A cleaned-up version of this map is now for sale in the Transit Maps print store. Click here to buy a print!

Source: Utah Rails website (JPG download)

Historical Advertisement: Opening of the Eastern Suburbs Railway, Sydney, June 1979

October 27, 2017
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A full-page ad in the Daily Telegraph newspaper promoting the opening of the Eastern Suburbs line. Along with the copy promoting all the benefits – modern stations, high speed escalators and automatic turnstiles amongst them – there’s a neat little diagram that shows how the line is integrated into the wider transit network. Along with the nicely stylised City Circle, there’s also lines radiating out from the new stations to show bus connections. Of interest is the note that these feeder buses would be operated by a driver only, as Sydney was in the process of phasing out conductors in the late 1970s.

Submission – Unofficial Map: The Aloha Trailway, Oahu, Hawaii by Tony Barnhill

October 25, 2017
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Submitted by Tony, who says:

Hi, I created this map because I always wished someone would. I am not a designer, I am an IT Manager. Please let me know what you think!

Transit Maps says:

For an IT manager, this is a pretty accomplished effort, Tony! (And it just goes to show how little we should define ourselves by one label – everyone is capable of excelling at so many different things.)

Really, this little map does just about everything that you could reasonably expect it to – it names the trails, gives their distances and joining points with the other trails and roads, an idea of elevation, and even TheBus route numbers to some of the trailheads. That’s pretty information-dense in anyone’s language!

There’s also good differentiation between the brightly coloured trails and the light grey roads, though I think that there’s a white border at the intersection of Nehoa and Punahao that shouldn’t be there – it almost makes it look like the roads don’t actually intersect with each other.

I also really appreciate the addition of popular routes created by stringing together multiple trails into longer in-and-outs or loops, though it does highlight the one weakness of the map: the seemingly random placement of the lettered trail intersections on the map. As the popular routes rely on the reader stringing together a bunch of letters, they need to be easy to find on the map, or else things become too hard to follow. The simplest solution is to reorder the intersection letters to follow normal reading logic: reading from left to right and then down the page. So Tony’s current “V” would become “A”, then Q/B, O/C, T/D, U/E, and so on. Note that in systems like this, the letters “I” and “O” are often omitted as they can be confused with the numerals “1″ and “0″ – though in this case, that could cause problems as there are 26 lettered intersections plus the two “two-letter” arboretum trailheads.

Our rating: A pleasant and comprehensive little guide to some wonderful trails. Just needs a little bit of work to make some of the information easier to find. Three stars!

Unofficial Future Map: Amsterdam Metro “Time” Diagram by Alain Lemaire

October 24, 2017
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Here’s a really nicely thematic diagram of the future 2019 Amsterdam Metro, once the 52-Noord Zuid opens and the 51 gets demoted to “express tram” south of Zuid station and wil be routed around the loop to Isolatorweg instead.

This is hardly the first circular Amsterdam map I’ve featured on Transit Maps (see this from way back in 2012), but I do really like the way Alain has thematically tied the whole thing together with the theme of “time”. The new Noord-Zuid line becomes the hands of a clock, while the second smaller circle can perhaps suggest an hourglass when combined with the larger one. Even the typeface – Futura – is suggestive of the theme of moving towards the future.

On a technical note, I’d like to acknowledge the work that Alain’s done to make the two circles relate to each other visually. The main circle is divided into 22 equal parts (there’s room left for three stations between CS and Isolatorweg), while the smaller circle has 13 stations. Alain has used that 22:13 ratio for the circumference of each circle, so that the stations have the same space between them, regardless of whether they’re on the large or small circle. Mathematics!

Photo: Vintage MBTA Red Line Order of Stations Sign

October 22, 2017
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Submitted by Linda, who says:

MBTA Red Line Order of Stations (Harvard to Ashmont) sign on old retired Red Line car, Transit Day 2017, Seashore Trolley Museum, Kennebunkport, ME.

Transit Maps says:

A diagram of services along a rail line is – in its most basic form – nothing more than a list of stations served, so this sign actually works quite efficiently. It’s also similar to many railroad timetables, which read down for service in one direction and up for the other. The one quibble I have with this is the use of general regions for the final destination, rather than the name of the terminating station. As it stands, people with little familiarity with the Boston area might have thought  that there was a station called “Dorchester” past Ashmont at the southern end of the line.