All posts tagged: rapid transit

Fantasy Map: 2027 Detroit Transit Map from “Deus Ex: Human Revolution”

February 13, 2015
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Submitted by corvusboreus, who says: Replaying Deus Ex: Human Revolution and saw this map of the 2027 Detroit rail system. How much of a resemblance it has to the real rail system, I couldn’t tell you. Transit Maps says: Well, the short answer is that it doesn’t resemble it all.  The longer answer is that it doesn’t resemble it because Detroit doesn’t currently have any rail transit apart from its adorable people mover loop downtown. […]

Historical Map: Transit Extensions Over Existing Commuter Lines, Boston, 1972

February 13, 2015
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An audacious plan for expansion of rapid transit in Boston by electrifying the existing commuter rail lines. Bears quite a few similarities to this fantastic diagram from 1945, which also advocated rapid transit along railroad rights-of-way. peopleneedaplacetogo: Map from a 1972 proposal for the Boston subway lines to take over the commuter rail lines far out into suburbia, with the Green Line reaching Newburyport, the Green Line reaching Haverhill, the Red Line Fitchburg and Ayer, […]

Infographic: Rail Rapid Transit of the United States and Canada to Scale by Peter Dovak

January 14, 2015
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A follow-up to yesterday’s post: several people pointed me to this graphic by Peter Dovak that extends the concept to include all rail-based rapid transit in the USA and Canada, including people movers and monorails (but not commuter rail). transitoriented: A compilation of rail rapid transit systems drawn (but not arranged) to scale.  An attempt at an homage to this classic map by Bill Rankin, updated for 2015. View a larger resolution version here.

Submission – Fantasy Map: Southern Ontario Frequent/Rapid Transit Map by Jimmy Wu

December 23, 2014
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Submitted by Jimmy, who says: I had initially completed this fantasy map of the rapid and frequent transit networks in and around Toronto and Ottawa in early 2014, but I was a bit hesitant to ask you to review it because it is one of the first transit maps I’ve made; now that the year is over, I would appreciate a review with some possible feedback that I can implement in a possible new iteration. […]

Historical Map: Elevated Rail Lines in Manhattan and the Bronx, 1893-1903, Drawn c. 1955(?)

December 1, 2014
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Another great map from the New York Public Library archives. What was there before the advent of the subway? Familiar routes, perhaps, but above-grade rather than underground. As the legend says, “Except as noted, all lines are on iron viaducts over public streets.” nyplmaps: Manhattan railway company track map of elevated lines in Manhattan & the Bronx 1893-1903 The Electric Railroader’s Association’s 54 x 41 cm hand drawn map shows the various elevated railroad lines and […]

Historical Map: Tentative Location of Future Rapid Transit Lines, Philadelphia, 1913

October 30, 2014
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From A. Merritt Taylor’s Report of Transit Commissioner, City of Philadelphia. At the time, only the current Market-Frankford Line (complete with “Ferry Line” extension at the east end) was operating, so everything else shown here is proposed. Coincidentally, the colour scheme used seems to be almost identical to that used today, although the colours actually indicate immediacy of construction – blue for extant, orange for “immediate construction” and green for “future construction”. Source: 18brumaire/Flickr

Submission – Historical Map: Chicago CTA Rapid Transit Map, 1983

August 26, 2014
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Submitted by our resident repository of Chicago transit map knowledge, Dennis McClendon, who says: This map of Chicago’s rapid transit network originated in the 1970s (this one is from June 1983), and this style was used until routes received color names in 1993. Happily, by that time digital printing in fiberglass-embedded signs made full-color maps easier to place in graffiti-prone environments. These maps were silk-screened onto [blue] color blanks, and every color of ink added […]

Historical Map: Theoretical Diagram of Proposed Transit System, St. Louis, Missouri, 1919

June 24, 2014
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Here’s a map that hyperrealcartography would love: an audacious, almost outrageous, proposal for a transit system in St. Louis drawn up by the City Plan Commission in 1919. The final proposed system shown here would have had the existing streetcars and new rapid transit lines operating side-by-side, described like this in the full proposal: “The rapid transit system is separated into two distinct systems, that for the routing of surface cars in the downtown district, […]

Historical Map: Rapid Transit Plan by the City of Seattle, 1920

June 13, 2014
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Here’s an interesting map that shows a plan for rapid transit that city engineers envisioned for Seattle way back in 1920, almost 100 years ago! The map shows a subway running beneath Third Avenue from Virginia to Yesler, coming to the surface near the railroad stations – essentially the route followed by the present-day Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. Trains going up to Capitol Hill would follow a line up Pine Street that would be alternately […]

Future Official Map: Pearl River Delta Rapid Transit

May 25, 2014
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Sent my way by David Edmondson of The Greater Marin, this is an incredibly large (the dimensions of the PDF are 145″ x 101″ or 386cm x 256cm!) and very comprehensive map of the planned Pearl River Delta Rapid Transit system. Currently under construction, the idea behind the system is to have every major urban area in the region to be less than an hour away from Guangzhou (the huge urban area in the blue […]