Submitted by the map’s creator, who says: This is a route map of the GWR network. It’s my first time creating a transit map with Illustrator, so I’m open to any feedback! Transit Maps says: This is a pretty good first effort! In a way, this is a throwback to old railway maps, in that it shows where the trains travel, but not how they do so – individual routes aren’t indicated, so it’s impossible […]
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, […]
Submitted by Jim, who says: I came across this horrendous mess of lines and angles. Its the Weekday Service map for Belgian Rail – the national rail company for Belgium. Sorry its only in French/Dutch, but I think the drawing speaks for itself. I know making a map for a whole country is no easy feat but I feel like there must be some improvements to be made, especially around Brussels. Transit Maps says: Yep, that’s […]
Via: xoverit: A sightseer’s travel map of Japan showing famous landmarks, mountains, seaside resorts and hot springs 1936 Japan National Railroad (JNR) map of the Japanese Empire including Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria produced under the supervision of Prof. Sho Takahashi of the National Railroad Bureau. Suffice to say, it contains many amusing advertisements, including the one on the front cover which is for… some kind of hormone supplement lotion? This. Is. So. Beautiful. Such amazing detail […]
It’s always fun to do a “before and after” comparison, and here’s a fantastic example of how a well-drawn diagrammatic map can offer enhanced system legibility over a more geographically-based map. The old map (top), dating from October 2014, is pretty terrible work. Towns and cities are in the right geographical location, but are simply joined by straight lines, which creates a difficult-to-read “spider web” of interconnecting and overlapping routes. Rail lines are shown as both purple […]
Submitted by Piotr Ingling, who says: Not exactly a transit map but seeing your post with NY subway stations drawings recalled me this one. It’s a photo that I took in Dec 2004 – unfortunately it seems that the board has been removed long time ago during renovation works. I hope it is preserved somewhere. There are two levels here for metro and trams (underground part of tram network is called pre-metro as it’s ready […]
A fairly bare-bones map of existing (black) and new (red) rail lines in the Baltic State of Latvia from 1938. It’s mainly interesting because it shows the five different railroad gauges in use at the time. Five! (Which is right up there with Australia’s infamous “gauge muddle”). Source: Wikimedia Commons – Latvia
I’m kind of loving this elegantly simple two-colour Amtrak ridership map produced for an article on Fortune.com. It certainly shows the dominance of the Northeast Corridor in terms of ridership! Cartographically speaking, I really like the unusual “perspective” projection, which – when combined with some lovely and subtle relief shading – certainly gives the impression of looking down from high above the continent. The labelling of the routes perhaps doesn’t quite live up to the […]
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 […]
Submitted by the creator, who says: This map I created presents the NSW rural rail passenger network at its maximum extent in the CityRail style. The stations and lines that no longer provide passenger service (or have been disused completely) are greyed out – with the vast majority of stations and lines now falling into this category. Transit Maps says: This is great work, simultaneously showing NSW’s rail network as it currently exists (solid colours, […]
