All posts tagged: Europe

Official Map: Tyne & Wear Metro, England, 2011

November 17, 2011
comments 2
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

Opened in 1980, the Tyne and Wear Metro is the first of Britain’s modern light rail systems. It also benefits from a very strong corporate identity with the slab serif Calvert typeface (named after its creator and one of the original identity designers in 1977, the famous Margaret Calvert) as a core component. The typeface is used extensively throughout the system, even as wall-sized station names as seen in the photo of Monument Station. Taken […]

Official Map: Rail Transit of Stockholm, Sweden, 2011

November 15, 2011
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

I really appreciate transit maps that combine different modes of transit, and this map does just that – showing Metro, light rail, trams and commuter rail in a very clean, restrained manner. Coloured route lines (blue, orange and green) set the dense and important Metro network apart from the subsidiary light rail, tram and commuter rail routes, which are shown in grey and thin black lines. Zone information is displayed through a chilly looking cyan […]

Unofficial Map: Paris Metro with Geolocated Stations

November 8, 2011
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Further to yesterday’s post, here’s a new unofficial map of the Paris Metro that’s been hot on the interwebs over the last few days. Unlike the official RATP diagram, this version places all the stations in their exact geographical locations, although I suspect the route lines have been tweaked between those points to create more graceful curves than in reality. Also unlike the official map, it doesn’t attempt to show tram services or mainline train […]

Official Map: Paris Metro/RER/Tram Map, 2011

November 7, 2011
comment 1
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

If you visit Paris, you need to use the Metro to get around, so it’s a good thing that its map is up to the task. It took Paris a long time to come around to a diagrammatic approach (Harry Beck created two versions on spec, but both were rejected), and earlier diagrams were not as successful as this – one had all vertical lines set at a jaunty 15-degree angle, which made the whole […]

Official Map: Metro, Lisbon, Portugal, 2011

November 5, 2011
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

A beautiful example of an abstracted rectilinear diagram – everything is evenly spaced, with subtle curves and a lovely complementary rounded typeface. The colours in this diagram work wonderfully well, with “traditional” route colours of Blue, Yellow, Green and Red being given a pastel twist and lovely icons that fit in with Lisbon’s maritime history perfectly. An excellent bi-lingual key and icons pack this map with useful information and all type is set horizontally. The […]

Unofficial Map: The Accessible Underground, 2007

November 2, 2011
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

Older transit systems like the London Underground face huge problems with access for disabled users. Originally constructed at a time when such things were not thought about, retrofitting is expensive and difficult. Sometimes, even stations that rely on elevators for platform access – like Russell Square on the Piccadilly Line – are still not wheelchair-accessible, because there’s still a flight of stairs between the elevator and the platform. So what does the London Underground look […]

Official Map: Oslo T-bane (Metro) System, 2011

November 1, 2011
comment 1
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

An excellent example of a fully diagrammatic metro map. Clearly marked routes (both by number and end station name), bright and attractive colours and lots of useful information like bus, tram and main line railway interchanges. The city centre area is nicely denoted by showing it as a white square against the light grey background – the information is there, but is definitely subordinate to the main purpose of the map. There also appears to […]