A stylish little diagram of trolleybus routes in the Estonian capital. It’s from later than 2000, when Line 8 was abandoned, but also from before December 2012, when Line 2 was replaced by regular buses. Today, only lines 1, 3, 4, 5 and 9 remain. Can anyone date this even more precisely?

Stylistically, the diagram reminds me a lot of these 1990 diagrams of trams and trolleybuses from Kaliningrad, with some interesting abstract shapes and a slightly rough, “hand made” feel to the whole thing. Interestingly, the diagram uses the line numbers as station markers, reinforcing which route you’re following every step of the way. It’s not an approach I’ve seen often, but on a relatively simple network like this it’s actually surprisingly effective. Having less than 10 lines certainly helps!

Despite only having eight lines, two colours get reused: lines 6 and 9 are both light blue, while lines 1 and 7 are both pink. However, these pairs of lines only cross each other instead of running parallel, so there’s no real ill effects from this approach.

Our rating: A little rough and ready, but nicely compact and very cheery. Three-and-a-half stars.