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.

Historical Map: Map Showing Indianapolis as a Steam Railroad and Interurban Center, 1907

October 17, 2017
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Here’s an absolutely wonderful diagram of rail in Indianapolis in 1907 that pares everything down to the absolute minimum required to tell the story. 43 completely evenly-spaced railroad lines (representing 18 steam lines and 25 interurbans, according to the source) enter the city, which is encircled by the aptly named Belt Railroad. The names of those 43 outer destinations spiral dramatically around the edge of the map, though the flow is perhaps broken a bit by the need to show some still-more-distant cities: Cincinnati, Dayton, Louisville, Evansville, St. Louis and Chicago, all of which are shown as being accessible by multiple routes.

Our rating: I love this so much. An instant five stars.

Prints of this amazing diagram are now available in the Transit Maps online store.

Source: Indiana History website

Historical Map: Rotterdam Transit Map, c. 1974 by Tel Design

October 16, 2017
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Here’s another fantastic old transit diagram taken from the pages of the 1974 Graphis Diagrams annual (see also this concept Helsinki Metro map). This minimalist diagram of Rotterdam’s transit was designed by the firm Tel Design, who were also responsible for the corporate identity of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS or Dutch Railways) in the 1960s. The creative director, Gert Dumbar, formed his own design studio in 1977 and continued to do work for NS through the 1980s, creating the visual language of the railway which is still very evident today.

The diagram uses a clear colour-based visual hierarchy: black and the NS logo for main line rail. blue for the Metro (at the time, the only one in the Netherlands), and red for trams and buses. I think black numbers are for trams and red numbers are for buses, but I could be wrong. Points of interest get white numbers in black boxes, and are explained at the bottom of the map.

There’s a very pleasant simplicity to the whole thing, although it’s perhaps missing a few too many contextual cues to be truly useful – street names, etc. Still, it’s a lovely example of classic mid-1970s Dutch minimalist design and worth a look.

Source: design et typo

Official Map: Railway Track Map of France, 2017

October 12, 2017
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By now, many of you will know that I’m working on reworking my diagram of TGV routes in France from 2011. While doing research, I came across this absolutely stunning track map of all railways in France, produced by Latitude-Cartagène, who were also responsible for this great diagram of transit in the Ile-de-France.

Seriously, the level of detail in this is just amazing. Single-track, double-track and multiple-track lines are all shown individually, with extra differentiation between electrified, non-electrified passenger and freight lines. Marshalling yards are drawn in precise detail. The high-speed lignes à grande vitesse (LGV) – of most interest to me, obviously – are shown in prominent cyan lines, even including the soon-to-be-opened Nîmes–Montpellier bypass (shown above). Tourist railways like the line to Digne-les-Bains from Nice are also shown, as are lines that have closed but are still extant. Even here, a distinction is made between “really closed” and “we might open this one again some time”.

In short, this is simply incredible and well worth a detailed perusal by any rail fan: download the latest version of the PDF from the SNCF website here.