All posts tagged: Europe

Submission – Unofficial Map: Passenger Rail Services of Wales by James Jackson

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Unofficial Maps

Submitted by James, who says: While I’ve been designing imaginary transit maps, and re-imagining existing transit maps, for a few years, I’ve been doing it on Illustrator. I’ve drawn the Welsh rail franchise a number of times, but I set myself a few challenges this time round. I wanted to make it clearly bilingual. Here in Wales we’re used to seeking out our respective languages on signs and official documents, but official versions of the […]

Reader Question: Do you know or have a good detailed transit map of Germany’s ICE/IC/RE/etc. services?

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Questions

Question: Hi Cameron, Do you know or have a good detailed transit map of Germany’s ICE/IC/RE/etc. services? I’ve Googled for it and either I’m not using the right words or I need to be using German terminology for it as what I find is lacking. Thanks! Answer: There are maps of current ICE and IC services available on the Deutsche Bahn website, but they’re pretty terrible (although they do give you an overview of where the […]

Photo: Willesden Junction, Not Willesden Green!

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Official Maps

A very obvious sticker hides a rather monumental error on this Bakerloo Line strip map. The rather ugly abbreviation “Junct” only just covers up the fact that this sign used to read “Willesden Green” – which is on the Jubilee Line, not the Bakerloo! Prior to 1979 and the opening of the Jubilee Line, Willesden Green was serviced by Bakerloo trains – but we can’t even blame an old sign here, as this one only dates from the […]

Submission – Official Map: Municipal Bus Network, Luxembourg City

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Submitted by Line Gustafsson, who calls this “Luxembourg City’s spaghetti monster”, and says: I hate it, the layering of lines is seemingly arbitrary. The bad network design is worsened by choosing very broad lines and thus creating the body of the monster in the centre of the map. Transit Maps says: It’s hard to disagree with Line’s nickname for this map, or his frank assessment of it. This is a bit of a mess, especially in […]

Official Map: Metrovalencia, Valencia, Spain, 2015

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The opening of Metrovalencia’s new Line 9 in March 2015 led to both a restructuring of the previous network (renumbering and rerouting of some lines) and this new system map.  This version differs from previous ones in that it differentiates between “metro” and “tram” services – using a solid line with white station dots for the former, and an two-toned line with coloured station dots for the latter. I’m not entirely sure the differentiation needs to be […]

Submission – VitruviuS-Bahn by Arne Nys

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Fantasy Maps, Unofficial Maps

Submitted by Arne, who says: It suddenly appeared to me that the Berlin S-Bahn system had the form of Da Vinci’s Man of Vitruvius: a circle (Ringbahn), two arms (Stadtbahn) and a head + legs (Nord-Südtunnel and the southern branches at Yorckstrasse), with Friedrichstrasse as the heart of the network. So I made a map. What do you think? Transit Maps says: Well, that’s certainly a creative and unusual way to interpret the Ringbahn! Of […]

Official Map: Reykjavik Excursions Bus Network, 2015

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Fast forward ten years from yesterday’s excellent diagrammatic map of bus services in Iceland, and we’re now left with this sad thing. There are far fewer routes, although I’m not sure if that’s because service has been reduced or the map is only showing the routes of one company.  The geographically-accurate shape of Iceland sits uneasily with the crudely straightened route lines: this map has none of the elegance of the earlier version. On a […]

Advertisement: “Double Diamond” Beer Featuring the London Tube Map (c. late 1970s?)

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Advertising

More proof of just how ingrained the Tube Map is in the English psyche is evident in this billboard advertisement for Double Diamond beer – inserted as the punchline in the long-running “Only here for the beer!” campaign.  The ad campaign itself is almost as much as part of England as the Tube Map; the tag line has entered into the vernacular, much like “Where’s the beef?” in the U.S., and “Not happy, Jan!” in […]