All posts tagged: 4.5 stars

Unofficial Map: German Intercity Rail Network, 2020 by u/theflyingindonesian

January 27, 2020
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Thanks to everyone who has alerted me to this rather wonderful map of the German Intercity rail network, created by a Reddit user known only as “theflyingindonesian”. This is actually something that I thought about tackling after I finished my French TGV network map way back in 2011, so I know how daunting and complex a project this is! If you’ve never seen the official Deutsche Bahn diagrams for these networks, prepare to be very […]

Revised Unofficial Map: Copenhagen Rapid Transit Map by Kristoffer Bæk and Pasha Omelekhin

October 1, 2019
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Sometime after I reviewed Kristoffer’s original unified Copenhagen-area transit map (January 2019, 4 stars), he began to collaborate with Pasha Omelekhin, a designer probably most well-known for his alternative Berlin map. They’ve just released their revised map, and it’s really quite wonderful. Designwise, it’s definitely an evolution of Kristoffer’s original map, but I can see where the collaboration has resulted in marked improvements to the map. The interchanges have a more consistent design now, one […]

Fantasy Map: Portland MAX in the Style of the Vignelli New York Subway Map

May 17, 2019
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I missed this when it was released yesterday, but those TriMet designers (who really do seem to have too much time on their hands!) have released another mash-up map, this time riffing off the (in)famous 1970s New York Subway diagram by Massimo Vignelli. It’s probably the best one so far, mimicking the style almost perfectly. If you’re going to do a homage, you may as well go all in, and that’s exactly what’s been done […]

Future Map: Cascadia High-Speed Rail Network by Oran Viriyincy

February 14, 2018
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Created on behalf of a new advocacy group for true high-speed rail in the Pacific Northwest – the aptly named CascadiaRail – this is probably my favourite map of 2018 so far. It’s clear, beautiful, representative of the region, and is wonderfully aspirational – presenting a clear and exciting vision of a possible future. I especially like that there’s no state or national borders shown at all: the region is instead defined by the natural […]

Submission – Tram Map of Odessa, Ukraine by Art Lebedev Studios, 2017

May 6, 2017
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Sent my way by quite a few people, here’s yet another gorgeous transportation map from Art Lebedev Studios. It bears a lot of their usual trademarks –interesting and unusual station ticks, gradients between line colours at interchange stations, superb point-of-interest icons – but it also brings a playfulness that I haven’t really seen before in their work. The route lines have a very pleasant organic flow to them, and there are some very nice “flavour” icons […]

Historical Map: “Spoorslag 70″ Intercity Trains Map, The Netherlands

February 1, 2017
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A rather lovely minimalist diagram of Intercity trains in The Netherlands as introduced by the Spoorslag 70 plan, an effort at modernising and standardising passenger train travel in that country.  The coastline at the bottom left gets a little complex compared to the simplicity of the rest of the map, and all the type is angled (but at least all on the same axis!), but otherwise this is really quite lovely. The single thin black […]

Submission – Official Future Map: RTA of Southeast Michigan Regional Master Transit Plan

June 1, 2016
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Submitted by Mike Moran, who says: Southeast Michigan’s local/regional transit plan, an ambitious 20-year, $4.6B plan to provide actual transit options to the greater Detroit area. Heavy reliance on BRT, plus a new regional rail line. One thing to note is the Woodward streetcar (nearing completion) is barely a blip at this scale. As a side note, I’m currently in Portland for a conference (my first time here) and I love the transit system! I […]

Book Review: “Transit Maps of the World”, 2015 Revised Edition by Mark Ovenden

November 2, 2015
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First published in the United Kingdom as Metro Maps of the World in 2003, this book has long been an indispensable reference book for graphic designers, train aficionados, cartographers, and geeks alike. However, its last major revision was in 2007 – and much has changed in the world of transit map design since then. More transit systems, new maps, revised maps, digital and web-based maps, the rise of the amateur map designer and more. Like […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Radial Madrid Rail Transit Map by David Herraiz

August 28, 2015
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Submitted by David, who says: For some time now, I’ve been busy designing a Madrid transit map, and your blog has been a great help. It’s fantastic to have access to all this information and, first of all, I wanted to thank you for running this blog. Your comments are always helpful. Latest Madrid Metro maps were, so to speak, not very appropriate and, even without previous experience in map design – I’ve always been […]

Unofficial Map: Metro Map of Sofia, Bulgaria by “Save Sofia”

July 17, 2015
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Submitted by Andrej Zografski, who says: Our NGO Spasi Sofia/Save Sofia, (founded and run by five forum members of the SkyScraperCity) have designed and implemented new signs for Sofia metro. It is our free gift to the society we live in and input towards a better, more organized and welcoming Bulgarian capital. Now the first test stage is being implemented, and if it is successful in September we should put the new signs in the […]