Today I learned that there’s another game based on the London Underground apart from (the somewhat ridiculous) “Mornington Crescent” – “The London Game”. Where can I get a copy? Source: Zed.Cat/Flickr – link no longer active
One type of map we haven’t covered yet here at Transit Maps is the night services map, often considered a very poor relation to the main map. However, there are some excellent examples out there, especially this black and yellow beauty from the city of Zurich in Switzerland. Have we been there? No. What we like: Graphically very striking with its black and yellow colour scheme. Good differentiation between bus and train services accomplished by […]
Here’s a fascinating reworking of Harry Beck’s original 1933 Tube map that I haven’t seen before. Apparently it’s from an article in a journal from November 1933 that details the work required to upgrade the electrical services on the Underground. Apart from the stark black and white treatment and addition of the power stations and substations, what’s really interesting about this map are the little tweaks and changes that have already occurred since the first […]
A fantastic old in-car map from London’s old Metropolitan Railway: the world’s first underground railway and the precursor to the modern London Underground. Today, former Metropolitan Railway tracks and stations are used by the London Underground’s Metropolitan, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Piccadilly and Jubilee lines. I’m guessing this map is from around 1930 or so, as the Railway’s lines are substantially complete apart from the Stanmore extension out of Wembley Park, which opened in […]
One of the things I love about running this blog is when amateur map designers send me their work for review. The quality of these maps is often amazing, and this one of Istanbul’s rapid transit network by Istanbul native Kerim Bayer is a fantastic example. Design- and quality-wise, it far surpasses the official map (shown above for comparative purposes), which is a bit of a shambles: weird angles, muddy colours, poorly drawn and a […]
Another Really Big Map, this time from Manchester Victoria Station in England. Beautiful! Source: robertknight16/Flickr
A lovely example of British Rail’s house style of the 1960s and 70s, now residing at the East Anglian Railway Museum. This map is from between 1965 (the introduction of the “double-arrow” British Rail identity), and 1978 (when the “Eastern” component of the logo changed from sitting in an outlined box to a solid box like the British Rail text). Can anyone date it more definitively? Source: Deptford Draylons/Flickr
In St. Petersburg, Russia. Actually, now that I come to think of it, the SNCF map in the ticket hall in Gare Montparnasse in Paris is pretty damn huge, too. Source: 2 Girlz Loving Life/Flickr
Possibly the most abstract and colourful train route map I’ve ever seen. Looks like it’s from a commuter train in northern Poland (around Gdansk and Sopot). Major stations get a slightly bigger dot and their name in white. The overall effect is like a planet-heavy map of the solar system… Source: szogun000/Flickr
Following on from the previous post about Luxembourg, here’s another nationwide system map that resembles a subway map, this time for Luxembourg’s neighbour, Belgium – the land of beer, frites and Tintin! Have we been there? Yes, during my European jaunt in 2003. I caught trains from Brussels to Ghent, Ghent to Bruges, Bruges to Ypres and Ypres back to Brussels. What we like: Nice simplification of a relatively complex network. Major hubs are treated […]
