All posts tagged: Europe

Submission – Historical Map: Madrid Metro Map and Linear Diagram, 1945

December 6, 2017
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Submitted by Pablo Martin, who says: This is the Madrid metro map from 1945, I found the diagram below really interesting, as I haven’t seen a similar one for any other network. Transit Maps says: Nice find, Pablo! The geographical map is fairly clumsy and unremarkable, but the diagram beneath is very interesting. It’s what I call a “linear diagram” – each route is shown as a straight line, with interchanges indicated by a vertical joining […]

Submission – Official Maps: allGo Bus Network Circular Diagrams, Almere, The Netherlands

December 3, 2017
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Submitted by Arjen, who says: allGo is the new name for the public transport in Almere (The Netherlands). With some rather special transit maps. Transit Maps says: Yes, these certainly are interesting, Arjen, and continue the recent trend towards more organic-looking stylised maps (see also the recent curvilinear redesign in Karlsruhe, Germany). It’s probably important to note that both of these diagrams are meant to be secondary overviews to a fully-geographical system map (PDF here), […]

Review: London Underground Architecture and Design Map by Blue Crow Media

November 25, 2017
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Blue Crow Media is an independent publisher of beautifully designed city guide maps on many subjects – you may be familiar with their “Brutalist Architecture” series – and this new map is the first in a planned series of maps about public transportation networks around the world. Edited by Mark Ovenden (of Transit Maps of the World fame) with some lovely photos by Will Scott, the map promises to be an authoritative guide to the design and architecture […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Historical Map: Concept for Helsinki Metro Diagram, c. 1974

September 27, 2017
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Here’s something interesting – an early concept diagram for the Helsinki Metro that shows two lines instead of the eventual one (plus branch). It appears in the 1974 edition of Graphis Diagrams, a collection of the best informational design from around the world at the time (generally within the last year).  Stylistically, it’s almost identical to the diagram that was actually used when the Metro finally opened in 1982… it just has a whole extra […]

Historical Map: Newcastle Inns “Metro Map” Ad, 1982

September 3, 2017
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This newspaper ad from 1982 predates all those trendy “coffee shops/restaurants/bars/etc. nearest every subway/metro/train station in [insert city]” graphics that are pretty much everywhere these days by some 35 years. Riffing off the the Tyne & Wear Metro Map of the day, the map shows all the Newcastle Inns’ pubs near stations with their star logo, while also featuring some truly dreadful advertising copy puns. Source: SkyscraperCity forums

Submission – Unofficial Map: Isometric Rail Map of Nuremberg, Germany by Stevan Wurm

August 30, 2017
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Submitted by Stevan, who says: I’d love to get an opinion from you about my concept for Nuremberg’s metro region transit map. I’m not huge fan of official Nuremberg-Fuerth map [which hasn’t changed substantially since I reviewed it back in May 2012 – Cam] so I decided to give a try and redesign the map. In past I’ve tried several times to create transit maps for few cities but this one is the first one I could […]