All posts tagged: USA

Historical Map: 1962 Rose City Transit Bus Map, Portland, Oregon

November 18, 2022
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Here’s a map from a rarely-seen era of Portland, Oregon’s transit history – the period of time between the end of the streetcar era and the emergence of the current transit operator, TriMet in 1969. The Rose City Transit Company (with their lovely casual script logo and friendly “Rosy” nickname) operated bus service within the Portland city limits from 1956 until TriMet was formed. Under RTC’s watch, the last of Portland’s trolleybuses were phased out […]

Official Map: Los Angeles Metro Rail & Busway Map, 2022

October 7, 2022
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LA Metro opened the first operating segment of the K Line today, and there’s a new map to go along with it! As we haven’t reviewed this map since 2016 (when the Expo Line extension to Santa Monica opened!), it’s high time for a new look. The first thing I noticed is how this version of the map seems to be a point-by-point correction of the perceived flaws that I noted in that 2016: the […]

Official Map: Washington, DC Metrorail with Silver Line, 2022

September 23, 2022
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Thanks to everyone on Twitter alerting me to this new map! While there’s a lot of Washington, DC content on the blog, I haven’t fully reviewed the official WMATA map since 2013, so this revision seems like a good time to look at again. First off – let’s set it out of our system, everyone… SILVER LINE! SILVER LINE! Finally extending all the way out to Dulles Airport and Ashburn, and surely opening any time […]

Historical Map: New York Subway IND Division Map by Arthur Weindorf, 1942

September 9, 2022
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Over on Twitter, Peter Lloyd – the doyen of new York Subway experts – has been showcasing the many maps of Arthur Weindorf (1885–1979), a perhaps unsung contributor to the rich transit mapping history of that city. Weindorf was something of an artistic Renaissance Man – he was a cartoonist, fine art painter, and architectural engineer for the New York Public Service Commission. As well as his many drawings and maps of the subway, he […]

Official Map: A New Geographical Map for the NJ Transit Rail System, 2022

August 12, 2022
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The NJ Transit rail map has basically looked the same – and has retained most of its faults – since I reviewed it back in the very early days of the blog [November 2011, 1.5 stars], so it came as a surprise when I discovered that that diagram has been replaced with a new geographical map this month. NJ Transit has been down this path before, with similar maps used around 20 years ago, though […]

Historical Map: Peninsular Electric Railway, California, c. 1908

August 3, 2022
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An attractive bird’s-eye panoramic map of the lines of the Peninsular Railway (1900–1934), affectionately known as “the Pin” by locals. The railway was founded as a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad to provide connecting electric interurban service through the Santa Clara Valley from San Jose. The map itself is a fairly typical example of the genre, though the curved labels for locality names along the lines are an unusual and effective device for enclosing […]

Historical Map: Transportation Map of Greater Kansas City, 1941

July 26, 2022
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A very handsome map of transportation services in the greater Kansas City area from 1941. A nicely subdued olive street grid is overlaid by the route lines – colour-coded by mode (black for streetcars, blue and red for bus lines, and a lovely aqua for trolleybuses). Areas of interest are called out in bright yellow, so this looks like a six-colour print job – quite a luxury in 1941! There’s also a great downtown inset, […]

Official Maps: Shuttle Buses, South Rim, Grand Canyon National Park, 2022

June 16, 2022
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As you might know, I’ve just got back from a week in Grand Canyon National Park, with three days spent below the rim hiking from the South Kaibab trailhead down to the Colorado River and back up again via the Bright Angel trail. It truly was a challenging but wonderful experience, and there’s some photos to savour at the end of the post. While I was in the park, I was heartened to see that […]

Submission – Unofficial Map: Caltrain Service Diagram by Fern K Hahn

May 23, 2022
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Submitted by Fern, who says: Frustrated with illegible service patterns and a pretty ugly system map (viewable here – Cam), I made my own line map for the Caltrain regional railway along the SF Peninsula. Curious what you think! Transit Maps says: This is a great example of how a transit diagram doesn’t need to be flashy or over designed to be successful – just clear and easy to understand. Similar in execution to Japanese […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: New York City Elevated Rail Map by Jasper von Seeburg

May 2, 2022
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Submitted by Jasper, who says: This is a map I designed of the The New York City Elevated System, a proposed automated-rapid-transit system for the five boroughs, to be owned and operated by the City of New York. The 88-mile, 72 station network would run above the city’s major streets and freeways, connecting with 26 subway routes, LIRR and Metro-North commuter railroads, PATH train, a revised LaGuardia AirTrain, and over 120 city buses. The system […]