Submitted by Jug, who says: I’d like to submit a map I have been working on for quite some time and finally completed. It’s a diagram of the Shinkansen high speed train network in Japan. As the network is basically one main trunk line going from Kyushu to Hokkaido and several spurs it makes sense to show it in a schematic way. Also high speed makes geography and distance almost irrelevant. One will easily notice […]
A small inset diagram from a 1993 tourist map of Tokyo, showing the myriad transportation options between Tokyo and its airports. Nicely simplified, and also gives prices, as well as approximate travel times to Narita (then still officially known as “New Tokyo International Airport”). The distinctive shape made by the Yamanote and Chuo lines (a device also seen in this wonderful 1984 diagram by Richard Saul Wurman) forms the backbone of the diagram. Source: David Rumsey […]
Created on behalf of a new advocacy group for true high-speed rail in the Pacific Northwest – the aptly named CascadiaRail – this is probably my favourite map of 2018 so far. It’s clear, beautiful, representative of the region, and is wonderfully aspirational – presenting a clear and exciting vision of a possible future. I especially like that there’s no state or national borders shown at all: the region is instead defined by the natural […]
Here at Transit Maps, we see quite a few unified Bay Area maps. It seems that that the fractured nature of all the different transit agencies in the area seems to frustrate quite a few people, which drives them to try and make something better. The latest is this effort by Adam Susaneck, showing what things could look like in 2050 or so in a perfect world. It’s impeccably researched – head on over to […]
Whoa. An incredibly detailed “Underground-style” map of rail in the Greater Tokyo area – it seems to show everything from ropeways, aerial cables and streetcars all the way up to Shinkansen – by Flickr user Kzaral. Transliterating the station names to English means that the diagram simply can’t be as compact as other maps where Japanese characters are used, but there’s still a good sense of rhythm and balance to the map. All labelling is horizontal, […]
postgraphics: Tourists visiting Europe are often advised to travel by train rather than plane or car. Trains are considered reliable, fast and relatively cheap. But as a new research project shows, there are major differences within Europe: Whereas you can travel from London to Paris in less than four hours, traveling the same distance can last more than 22 hours in eastern Europe. A nice little series of isochrone maps showing how far you can […]
Hi Cameron! This map is in response to the map you posted by Lukas, age 12. I thought that Lukas’s map was quite interesting – the network reminded me of Alfred Twu’s high-speed rail map from last year, and the style was remarkably similar to that of my own hand-drawn maps. However, I thought that the map should not have stopped at a hand-drawn sketch, and so I took a few hours drawing up this […]
Submitted by Lukas, who says: Hi, my name is Lukas and I am 12 years old. I love to read your blog and other mapping blogs. I was looking online and i found a map of a hi-speed rail system for America designed by the government. I thought the system’s design was horrible, because it was made of isolated corridors and networks that were in no way connected to one another and had too many […]
Southeastern’s website contains the following blurb: “Our network covers London, Kent and parts of East Sussex. With 179 stations and over 1000 miles of track, we operate one of the busiest networks in the country. We also run the UK’s only high speed trains.” They should really add: “We also have a network map that makes it almost impossible to work out where our trains actually go.” I mean, what is actually going on here? […]
A handsome diagrammatic map of rail services throughout Japan, this one from an issue of the “Discover Japan” magazine (Vol. 21, Issue 4) that seemed to deal mainly with seeing Japan by train. Without the benefit of a translation for the map’s legend, I’d guess that the thick green lines are Shinkansen lines, blue ones are regional trains and brown lines are local/other services (Update: @suldrew has let me know that it’s Green = Shinkansen, […]
