All posts tagged: streetcar

Submission – Fantasy Map: Integrated Rail Diagram of Washington, DC and Baltimore by Chris Smere

October 18, 2018
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Submitted by Chris, who says: This is one of my latest works: an integrated rail diagram for the Baltimore and Washington DC areas. The style is inspired by Vignelli’s subway maps from the 70s. There are no intentional geographic references. I have tried to show all rail services – heavy, light rail and streetcar – in the same manner (all strokes are of the same thickness). Station indicators are different depending on service/transportation mode (circle = metro, subway, square = light […]

Historical Map: Montreal Street Railway System, 1893

September 7, 2018
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A map showing the extent of the streetcar network in Montreal in 1893. Most of the lines at this time were horse-drawn, though electrification of the system had already begun. “The Rocket”, Montreal’s first electric streetcar, made its maiden journey in September 1892, and all lines were electrified by 1894. Source: Archives de Montreal

Historical Map: Map of Interurban Lines and Trolley Observation Trip, Portland Electric Power Company, c. 1923

September 6, 2018
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Here’s a handsome map of electric rail transportation in and around Portland, Oregon that – somewhat curiously – I hadn’t come across before. For the most part, it correlates with my own research into the network in the 1920s, though there are two little stub lines shown that I haven’t previously seen on any other map. The first of these is a branch on the Oregon City interurban from the Gladstone stop eastwards a short […]

Historical Map: Pacific Electric Railway System in Southern California, c. 1926 by Jake Berman

September 5, 2018
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I’m really enjoying this modern take on a map of the Pacific Electric’s sprawling electric streetcar network by Jake Berman. Obviously based on the period map shown (or an extremely similar one!), it retains a lot of the visual energy of the original – mainly because of the multiple angles used for both the route lines and labels. Normally, this might be something I’d find fault with, but I think it’s totally appropriate here when […]

Historical Map: Strassenbahn and Stadtbahn Map, Vienna, Austria, 1933

July 17, 2018
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A map of Vienna’s city rail network in 1933, showing the extensive tram (Strassenbahn) network and the Wiener Stadtbahn, which now forms part of both the U- and S-Bahn networks. Interestingly, the stations of the Stadtbahn are only denoted by two-letter abbreviations on the map, which have to be cross referenced with a legend at the top right. This is also probably one of the earliest attempts at indicating fare zones I’ve seen on a […]

Submission – New Official Transit Map of Plauen, Germany by Moritz Köhler

June 19, 2018
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Submitted by Moritz, who says: I’m an architecture student from Zurich who has also been a (public) transport and map geek for quite some time now. The town of Plauen in Germany has had a quite horrible map for its tram and bus system, so I created a new one privately, which I then offered to them for use. They indeed agreed to pay for it (which they haven’t done yet, but I’ll be on […]

Historical Map – Bus and Streetcar Lines on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, c. 1935

June 7, 2018
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An unusual perspective here – looking down the length of the mile-long diagonal parkway to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and its famous steps), with bus and streetcar routes highlighted in a lovely shade of apple green. Does a lot of work with just two printed colours – a reminder that limited palettes can sometimes be just as effective as full-colour. Really quite lovely. Prints of this map are now available in the Transit Maps […]

Historical Map: Map of Kyoto and Vicinity, 1920

January 27, 2018
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Here’s a lovely old map of Kyoto, issued by the Miyako Hotel in 1920 for the benefit of its guests. The hotel is still there almost 100 years later, now owned by the Westin Group. The interurban streetcar to Otsu that once ran down the middle of the street in front of the hotel was abandoned in 1997, replaced by the underground Tōzai Line of the Kyoto Municipal Subway. The electric streetcars are displayed prominently on […]

Submission – Historical Map: Lines of the Lincoln, Nebraska Street Railway, 1892

December 16, 2017
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Submitted by Ethan, who says: Thought you might enjoy this hand-painted streetcar map of Lincoln, Nebraska from 1892 (Link to high-res PDF). I particularly enjoy the attempt at route colors and what appear to be marked stops. Transit Maps says: Oh, I definitely do enjoy this one, Ethan! From the blue background and white linework, it looks as if this may have originally been a blueprint drawing of the city that’s then been embellished by […]

Historical Map: Lines of the Utah Light & Traction Co., Salt Lake City, 1940

October 27, 2017
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A great old map of transit from Salt Lake City, showing bus lines (in green), trolleybus lines (in red, and curiously referred to as “electric coaches”, a designation that only seems to have been used here), and the one last remaining streetcar line (in blue). Even that seems to be on its last legs, as the legend says that Line 5 could be served by “street car or gas bus”. I believe the last streetcar ran in […]