All posts tagged: passenger rail

Project: Amtrak Timeline Map, 1971-2017

November 9, 2017
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Here's a fun little project: an interactive timeline of Amtrak's passenger rail routes from its inauguration in 1971 through to the current day. Using the extensive Amtrak timetable archives over at the Museum of Railway Timetables (well worth a visit!), I've created maps in five year increments -- 1971, 1976, 1981, etc. -- that show the changing face of passenger rail in the United States over the last 40-plus years. Click through to inspect the map!

Historical Map: Map Showing Indianapolis as a Steam Railroad and Interurban Center, 1907

October 17, 2017
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Here’s an absolutely wonderful diagram of rail in Indianapolis in 1907 that pares everything down to the absolute minimum required to tell the story. 43 completely evenly-spaced railroad lines (representing 18 steam lines and 25 interurbans, according to the source) enter the city, which is encircled by the aptly named Belt Railroad. The names of those 43 outer destinations spiral dramatically around the edge of the map, though the flow is perhaps broken a bit […]

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 […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: London’s Rail Services by David Milne

August 2, 2017
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Submitted by David, who says: This all started about 17 years ago as an exercise to teach myself to use Macromedia Freehand. The years passed, Freehand became Adobe Illustrator, and I continued to work on it. The original Idea was to create an A4 sized map to carry around in my pocket, but it quickly became apparent that to contain the desired detail and remain legible it would have to be printed at A1 or […]

Unofficial Map – Bay Area Rail One-Word Station Names by Brian Stokle

May 13, 2017
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A tongue-in-cheek rationalisation of Bay Area rail transit to remove all the slashes in those terribly long and indecisive station names: North Concord/Martinez, Warm Springs/South Fremont, etc. Amusing, but also a pointed look at the peculiarly American habit of attempting to appease everyone when it comes to naming stations. Now, can someone do one of these for Washington, DC? *cough* U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo *cough* Source: Urban Life Signs

A Look at Amtrak Under the Proposed Federal Budget

April 15, 2017
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A federal budget outline from the Trump Administration looks to slash funding for rail transportation, including a complete elimination of federal funds for long-distance Amtrak routes like the Empire Builder, Southwest Chief and California Zephyr.  The map above, adapted from my Amtrak as Subway Map project, shows what the “national” passenger rail network could look like under this proposal: isolated, separate rail services, with no cross-country connections and over 220 stations without Amtrak rail service. Chicago, […]

Unofficial Map: “Spoorslag 70″-style Map of Intercity Trains in the Netherlands, 2017 by AS Veen

February 1, 2017
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The lovely 1970 Dutch train map featured in my previous post was brought to my attention by the author of this map – a pitch-perfect recreation of the current IntercIty network in the old map’s style. Apart from a bit of welcome clean-up to the islands at bottom left (a big improvement in the clarity of the cartography here), everything else is faithfully rendered – including the odd little notch taken out of the south […]

Historical Map: “Spoorslag 70″ Intercity Trains Map, The Netherlands

February 1, 2017
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A rather lovely minimalist diagram of Intercity trains in The Netherlands as introduced by the Spoorslag 70 plan, an effort at modernising and standardising passenger train travel in that country.  The coastline at the bottom left gets a little complex compared to the simplicity of the rest of the map, and all the type is angled (but at least all on the same axis!), but otherwise this is really quite lovely. The single thin black […]

Official Map: Victorian Train Network, Australia, 2017

January 4, 2017
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I’ve got a whole slew of requests for a review of this recently released map, so hold onto your hats! First off, this map is the final result of a three year process – Transit Maps reviewed an initial concept back in April 2014 – so it’s definitely taken a while to reach this final form. The gradual adoption of a new corporate identity for Public Transport Victoria (PTV), complete with a custom typeface called […]

Submission – Unofficial Future Map: Metro and Train Connections in Amsterdam by Alain Lemaire

December 3, 2016
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Submitted by Alain, who says: A map of the combined metro and train network around Amsterdam, showing train services for 2017 (metro line 52 is still not operational). I made this map to show how both metro and train form an integrated network within the region. For that reason, I combined different train services when they use the same line and stop at the same stations within the region portrayed. This map might for example […]