All posts tagged: commuter rail

Submission – Official Map: Transperth Rail Diagram, 2026

January 12, 2026
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Submitted by Noah, who says: I would appreciate a review of the updated system map for Transperth. Transit Maps says: This dates from October 2025, when the Armadale line was extended one station to Byford. Again, this is one of those diagrams that gets the job done, but absolutely lacks any finesse and craft. There’s a whole litany of problems here — angled labels when there’s plenty of room for them to be horizontal, inconsistent […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Klang Valley Integrated Transit by Eco

September 29, 2025
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Submitted by Eco, who says: I made this redesign of Greater Kuala Lumpur’s rail and BRT map this summer for an competition, given their official map feels unusually sloppy [Review from 2021 here: it looks much the same today – Cam]. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Transit Maps says: Oh, I do like this! A sleek, modern diagram that’s future-proofed up to 2032 with the inclusion of the planned MRT Circle Line (line 13). […]

Submission – Chicago Metra Line Rebranding

March 11, 2025
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Submitted by Nick, who says: Hi Cameron. I live in Chicago and our commuter rail Metra is considering rebranding its lines and recently released two proposals. I thought you and your readers might enjoy reviewing them. The announcement, proposed designs, and link to a survey are here. The proposed designs are available in a PDF here [I’ve also reproduced these below – Cam]. I’ve been riding Metra for more than 20 years and I’ll be […]

Submission – Official Map: Madrid Cercanías Rail Network, December 2024

January 6, 2025
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Submitted by Juan, who says: I send the new version of the Renfe-Madrid Cercanías network. It seems to me that it has improved quite a lot the previous version. This previous version had crossroads, angles, etc. I would like to know your opinion about this new map. Transit Maps says: What a massive improvement this over previous official versions! [See our reviews for the 2022 and 2013 versions – Cam] For once, a diagram has […]

Submission – Official Map: Rail and Bus Map of Southeast Queensland, Australia, 2024

October 10, 2024
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Submitted by Lachlan, who says: Brisbane dropped a new transit map and it is EXTREMELY pretty. I’m a big fan. Definitely the best-designed official transit map in Australia in my opinion. It even acknowledges the rapid bus routes and the G-Link light rail! I wish it could have acknowledged the existence of the ferries but that would probably require that the city centre become even more distorted… … and also submitted by Michael, who says: […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Improved Cercanías Madrid Map by Jace

August 30, 2024
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Submitted by Jace, who says: A while ago I saw your review of the Cercanías Madrid [our 2022 review is here – Cam], and, as a regular user of the system, I too find the map quite bad: Uneven distances between lines, mismatched fonts in the route bullets, and overall lack of quality. So, I took it upon myself to make a better map. I’ve centered it around the central loop of track, and I’ve […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: New York Regional Rail Concept by James G

August 5, 2024
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Submitted by James, who says: I created this map based on various concepts (mainly the work of Alon Levy) for through-running regional rail in the New York region. This network would integrate all of the current commuter rail networks, increasing frequencies to metro-like levels, so I thought a metro-like diagrammatic map would be a good fit. The services are grouped by their routes through the core to organize the many branches into six line identities. […]

Submission – Official Map: Greater Copenhagen Rail Map, 2024

July 31, 2024
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Submitted by Jakob, who says: The M4 branch extension to Copenhagen South has just opened, and with it, a much improved map compared to 2019 [My review of the 2019 map can be found here – Cam]. The Circle Line is now more spacious, junctions are labeled more clearly, and metro lines have a strikethrough to better distinguish them from similarly coloured S-train lines (although the colours across the system should be aligned). Now, Copenhagen […]

Historical Map: Diagram of Passenger Stations in the Sydney Metropolitan Area, 1928

July 29, 2024
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There’s a lot to like about this simple little track diagram of Sydney’s rail system from 1928. There’s a lot of different angles – both with route lines and station labels – but it still manages to hang together as a coherent whole. A big part of that is the dead straight Western line running all the way across the canvas from Central to Penrith, which provides that vital design axis that good diagrams almost […]

Historical Map: Sydney Railway Layout, 1953

September 29, 2023
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Unearthed on Twitter (It’ll always be Twitter to me, no matter what Elon says) by @crossing_lights, this is quite an extraordinary find. Long-time readers may have seen the 1939 version of this diagram (and the digital recreation that I made). Here’s the thing: the general consensus has always been that this was a one-off attempt at something in the style of H.C. Beck’s newfangled London Underground diagram. I seem to recall that one theory even […]