Urban rail and metro maps

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Almost every urban rail operator produces a map or diagram of their system which can be used by passengers to navigate their way around.

They are usually produced for display inside the carriages; on the platform walls; inside and outside the entrances and exits of metro stations and often as leaflets or brochures which can be obtained from ticket offices or direct from the transit operator.

In the 21st Century, the majority of these are in the form of diagrammatic representations of the system. However, some cities still prefer to show their transit system on highly detailed topographic or 3D maps of the entire urban area.

One of the pioneers of the urban rail diagram was the London Underground map which in turn was inspired by long thin diagrams of individual lines inside the carriages and by the work of LNER draughtsman George Dow. Early maps of the Berlin U-Bahn, Boston T, Paris Métro and New York Subway also exhibited some elements of the diagrammatic form.

[edit] Iconic status

There are a growing number of books, websites and works of art on the subject of urban rail and metro map design and use.

One of the most well-known adaptations of an urban rail map was The Great Bear by Simon Patterson. First shown in 1992 nominated for the Turner Prize The Great Bear replaces station names on the London Underground map with those of explorers, saints, film stars, philosophers and comedians.

Other artists such as Scott Rosenbaum, and Ralph Gray have also taken the iconic style of the urban rail map and made new artistic creations ranging from the abstract to the solar system.

Following the success of these the idea of adapting other urban rail and metro maps has spread so that now almost every major subway or rapid transit system with a map has been doctored with different names, often anagrams of the original station name.

There are now hundreds of examples of diagrams in an urban rail or metro map style that are used to represent everything from other transit networks like buses and national rail services to sewerage systems and Derbyshire public houses.

[edit] References

• Mr Becks Underground Map, Ken Garland, Capital Transport, London, 1994. ISBN 1-854-141686
• No Need To Ask, David Leboff and Tim Demuth, Capital Transport, London, 1999. ISBN 1-854-142151
• Metro Maps Of The World, Mark Ovenden, Capital Transport, London, 2003. ISBN 1-854-142887
• Das Berliner U- und S-Bahnnetz, Alfred B. Gottwaldt, TransPress, Stuttgart, 2004. ISBN 3-613-71227
• Telling the passenger where to get off, Andrew Dow, Capital Transport, London, 2005. ISBN 1-854-142917
• Underground Maps After Beck, Maxwell J. Roberts, Capital Transport, London, 2005. ISBN 1-854-142860
• Transit Maps of the world, Mark Ovenden, Penguin books, New York, 2007. ISBN 978-0-14-311265-5

[edit] External links

• Subways Transport, an extensive site with archive maps on virtually every urban rail system in the world.
• Urban Rail, one of the most authoritative sites on urban rail on the net
• Undistorted metro network maps, all at the same scale for comparison.