All posts tagged: passenger rail

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

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Unofficial Maps

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

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My Transit Maps, Unofficial Maps

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

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Unofficial Maps

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

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Historical Maps

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

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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

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Future Maps, Unofficial Maps

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 […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: Future Southeast Asia Rail Map by James Clark

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Fantasy Maps

Submitted by James, who says: Hi Cam, love your site! I’ve been studying future railways of Southeast Asia, in particular the Kunming to Singapore line via Laos, which will begin construction in December. I’ve created a map of every proposed railway in Southeast Asia: The details of all the proposed lines can be found on my Nomadic Notes website. Transit Maps says: This is obviously a labour of love from James, and it shows. Lots […]

Historical Map: French SNCF Rail Network, 1976 by Rudi Meyer

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Via long-time correspondent and fellow map-maker Andrew Smithers (check out his Project Mapping website if you haven’t done it yet!) comes this superb diagram of mainline rail services in 1976 France. It was created by famed Swiss designer Rudi Meyer, who was also responsible for the original – and very distinctive – Paris RER map in 1977-1978. The map is certainly very striking, using a bold blue and green colour palette and minimal distractions from […]

Project: Amtrak as Subway Map (revised)

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My Transit Maps, Prints Available

One of my longest-running projects is a subway diagram-styled map of Amtrak’s passenger rail network, with the original version dating back to 2010. I always made sure to update it regularly over the years, adding and deleting stations to keep it current. In April last year, I attempted to update the design of the map as well, although I ended up trying a few too many overly-clever things with it – overlaying lines on top of […]

Submission – Idealised Edinburgh Tramways Map, c.1940s by Andy Arthur

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Historical Maps

Submitted by Andy, who says: Hi, I recently got a bit over-fascinated and nostalgic about the old tramways network of Edinburgh and decided it would be fun to plot out a schematic routemap of the old system as it never quite was at some point in the late 1940s. I also had a little bit of fun trying to make it look like it just might have come out of the Corporation Tramways Department, even […]