If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then H.C. Beck must have been blushing when this diagram of railway services in Sydney, Australia was produced in 1939. Designed just six years after Beck's famous London Underground diagram first appeared, it mimics the original's style almost perfectly. As scans of this map on the Internet had quality issues, I decided to redraw it in Adobe Illustrator from scratch.
Submitted by John Mullany via email. Here’s an interesting rail planning map from 1969, presumably produced in association with the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan. It outlines all the improvements planned for Melbourne’s metropolitan rail system, including a whole bunch of new branches as shown in blue. According to the map, the works depicted were to be completed by 1985. Fast forward to 2015 – some 30 years past that deadline – and only the City […]
One last map from Sydney (for now!). One of the great pleasures of summer in Sydney is catching a ferry across the beautiful harbour to destinations like Taronga Zoo and Manly. This is the current system map, introduced at the same time as the train and light rail maps that I’ve previously featured. The seven routes, which used to be depicted in a rainbow of colours on previous maps, are now various shades of green, […]
Following on from yesterday’s post, thanks to “adros47” who left a comment noting that Transport NSW does in fact have an official map of Olympic Park special event bus services. Unlike Jimmy’s semi-geographical approach, this map is completely and unapologetically diagrammatic, and it actually works pretty well for me. About the only thing that I’d really like to see (as on Jimmy’s map) is an indication of how long a bus trip might take from […]
Having just returned from a family trip to my hometown of Sydney, here’s a very relevant map designed by Jimmy Liu. Of the map, Jimmy says: I drawn a Sydney Olympic Park Major Event Transport Guide which includes special events buses and trains, as well as regular services operated around the SOP premises. There is no such guide exist in any authorities website and I think this should provide some real benefits for people who […]
My final post on this subject (for now). I absolutely love these two separate graphics that take a previous version of Matt Johnson’s graphic (which only compared streetcar systems in the US) and add either Melbourne’s comprehensive tram network or Toronto’s streetcar network at the same scale. To be honest, I almost didn’t believe the Melbourne one when I first saw it – surely the creator had muddled up miles and kilometres! – and had to […]
Question: Dear TM, on the new Sydney rail map, Homebush station is situated on a spur all by itself. Could you perhaps explain why? Answer: Yeah, the map doesn’t make the reasoning behind this very clear, does it? It’s because Homebush is a terminus for all T2 “all stations” trains from the city. However, limited stops trains that are heading further west (almost) always bypass Homebush without stopping, hence the “gap” in the main line […]
If you've ever been to Sydney in January, then you'll know that the Sydney Festival is a big deal. Running for almost the entire month, it brings together the very best in the arts from around Australia and the world – music, dance, performance and more. So I was more than a little bit excited when I was commissioned to produce this thematic "route map" of highlighted events, to be used both online and in the Festival's printed program/brochure.
Submitted by Ben, who says: This is my version of the Sydney Trains map. I was inspired to try designing my own version after the introduction of the new official map which I found to be rather uninspiring. I have been learning Illustrator in the process, so thanks to your excellent blog for all the tips and tutorials. I have used a realistic background layer which is distorted to fit around the map but maintains […]
