Design Around the World: Metro Maps

fantastic.
thks

For me the most interesting post of the week, thank you for this great idea

I love metro map design.
Thanks for this great collection.

Very nice. Thanks!

This is great. Metro maps are one of my favorite pieces of way-finding design in public spaces. So much of the character of a place is captured in these helpful maps.
I love that you included Glasgow’s, I rode that last year and it’s the tiniest subway system ever, just one line going around in a circle.

Please think about reducing your RSS feed!

Posts with that big amount of images block my RSS FEEDREADER completely
not everybody has such a big ADSL connection as you might suppose

no fun….

Monterrey Rocks!!!!!

Nice one.. I was born in Brasilia. But I living in Perth. WA . Cooll!

Absolutely fantastic post. I love maps, this and the post about infomaps a few months back have been incredible. Thank you so much!

like very much. it Very surprised for me.

Vienna, Austria is missing: http://www.wienerlinien.at/wl/ep/downloadTracker.do?path=/media/files/2008/SVP_Deutsch_3288.pdf&oid=15354&type=pdf

Nice I have an original map of the London Underground at home the one hanging in the trains.

Well I been to a few places there, and I can say at least the Tokyo map represents the city. thats exactly how you feel when you are there first time.
Wonder what is going on and how to get somewhere.

I am missing the map of my home Vienna, Austria.

Interesting post. Amazing how they are all so similar, yet so different. As you mentioned, each has its own individual tracts that captures the personality of the place it is representing. There was something I really liked about the Moscow map. And glad to see that you included perhaps the two most famous of all, London and New York! I wonder where the inspiration for this post come from…been on holiday recently?

you miss Prague, Czech Republic ,)

http://www.czech-transport.com/images/metro+tram-lines-day.jpg

Il manque le metro de Lyon, en France !

Il manque le metro de Lyon, en France !

You miss a lot of interessing subs maps

great post, i like the map from tokyo

Great site !

Looks like there is a mistake regarding Kobe’s map (seems more like a Korean city map).

Best Regards,
Sajade

It’s me again !

May I suggest to add Tehran’s map ?
A version is available at http://www.irantour.org/Iran/tehranmetro.html

Beautiful ! a

All about globalisation in maps, except for a few cities who remained 20th century.

One thing : Kobe (Japan), the map shown here is the Korean version.

Oups! the map of Kobe is in Korean!

I come back from Cairo, Egypt. Metro clean and fast. You’ll find a lot of maps on the web.

You missed Prague, Czech Republic: http://metro.zarohem.cz/mapy/trasymetra2008.gif

Nice. Some missing, a least in France
Toulouse : http://www.bourlingueur.org/decouvrez/Guides/France/toulouse/metro-toulouse.html
Lyon : http://www.lix.polytechnique.fr/~hurand/Maple/metroLyon/metroLyon1.html
Lille : http://www.alzheimer-adna.com/Vcdn/MetroLille.html
Marseille : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Metro_Tram_Marseille_Prolongements.svg

Love it !!
You can clearly see the “history” of a city behind these maps …
Development in old european cities are very messy (London, Paris, Berlin…) whereas more recent cities, mainly in the US, are a lot more “organised” and planned!
The easiest? Helsinki !!

Here some new maps:
Lille – France : http://www.transpole.fr/metro-tramway/metro-lille/thermo-metro-1443.aspx
Lyon – France: http://www.tcl.fr/documents/pdf/metro_tram.pdf
Marseille – France: http://85.31.207.119/SITERTM_WEB/PagesFlash/pdf/tramway_metro.pdf
Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam (project): http://www.urbanrail.net/as/hcmc/ho-chi-minh-city.htm

Great, love it! Here is one more to add:

Prague
http://www.dpp.cz/download-file/1292-metro_a_tram20080509.gif

It’s not a true metro system, but Antwerp (Belgium) has an underground too:
http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/ant/antwerpen-premetro-map.gif

Thanks !
Why not add other Cities in France: Lille, Lyon or Marseille?

No Prague? http://www.quniverse.org/ceqip/2009/img/prague_metro.gif

Interesting post. But no Australian maps and 9 American?

Very interesting… Geographical vs schematic, and some cities are frightening even through their metro maps (Tokyo… looks like a plate of spaghetti).

Btw : I think you used a metro + bus map for Lausanne, which explains why there are so many lines in a modestly sized city (pop. 133,000). And if you want to expand your collection, you can check out Lyon, France : http://tcl.fr/documents/pdf/metro_tram.pdf

Thank you very much for this !

Really cool stuff ! thanks !

You forget Lyon in France (www.tcl.fr)

Lyon, France

http://www.ferro-lyon.net/xmedia/Images/Metro-pneu/croissance/Metro-2013.png

Would be nice to add Hong Kong

very cool! i enjoy designing maps when needed, this is very inspiring

Where is CAIRO, Egypt?

It’s one of the most popular & developing metro lines in Middle-East.

Nice post.

London underground map was even in the design top 100: http://www.designtop100.com/design/info/london-underground-map
(dutch)

Now is this just timely, I now have the subway map for my upcoming trip to Italy.

Wow! Only in Montreal we are using black as background!

Funny, how different they all are…

I personally like the one of my home-town best: Stuttgart, Germany.

Sorry guys, but you forgot Vienna/Austria!…
Here´s a link:
http://tinyurl.com/deusub

Wow… well pulled off.

New York, United States – that how a metro map should look like… I gonna copy that to my drive. It will come handy.

Fantastic, I try to collect metro maps of each town I go to

Btw, my hometown Vienna (Austria) has a nice one too – it is almost a coincidence that the Danube river looks like a ship:
http://wiener-untergrund.at/media/betrieb/netzplan/Schnellverbindungsplan_Wien.pdf

nice ones!
the viennese metro system could be of interest too.

http://geomorph.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/ag_geo_phys/wienerlinien-plan-ubahn.gif

New York is an amazing map,
it’s a street map too and still fairly simple. its full of info but not confusing

thanks. really good post

BTW I’m a new yorker

The Scotland one is too complicated for me!?

Hehe, the map from Switzerland is quite similiar to the German ones. Never thought about metro maps as a criteria for a country´s characterisation

Metro in Warsaw, Poland http://www.metro.waw.pl/lib/showgraf2.php?id=4260
gallery: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_warszawskie

second line under construction: http://www.metro.waw.pl/lib/showgraf2.php?id=3667

that is so creative

What about Paris??? http://www.ratp.info/orienter/f_plan.php?fm=pdf&loc=reseaux&nompdf=metro&lang=

Kobe Map was updated, thanks for pointing this out.

some of these are rather outdated.

Falto el metro de Medellín – Colombia

http://medellin.vive.in/porlaciudad/medellin/lugares_porlaciudad_medel/metrodemedelln/ARCHIVO/ARCHIVO-4741539-0.jpg

Pequeño pero muy bueno.

all the cities on one place. post like a global village. oo great i love it.

great!!!

Small cities have big metro routes.

Big cities doesn’t have as much as them.

But… Where is the metro map of Sao Paulo??????? Sao Paulo is a 5th biggest city in the world…

How can you miss a WHOLE CONTINENT? Australia. And then don’t respond or put up an appropriate map? I don’t get it?

dont forget tokyo metro.
http://www.tokyometro.jp/global/en/service/pdf/routemap_en.pdf

Busway, Brisbane – Australia

http://download.translink.com.au/maps/090624_busway_large.jpg

As a Hong Kong Resident, I would suggest putting one of the best designed metro systems on this list.
http://mtr.com.hk/jplanner/images/maps/routemap.pdf

Hands down this has got to be one of my most favourite posts – ever! Thank you!

Hey nice article..

But why no Kolkata Metro? That’s the first metro service in India and the fifth in Asia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkata_Metro. Delhi only started few years back. Dubai metro started only last year.

http://www.kolmetro.com/images/metroRoute.jpg

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/2391/metro2017.jpg

A few have mentioned the London Underground maps but no one and the writer haven’t acknowledged the fact that it was the London Tube map that set the standard that many of the above maps have followed:

With the tube map, they didn’t try to be accurate with geography or space, they simply wanted to show stations on the line and the correct interchange points…. who cares if Covent Garden and Leicester square are in walking distance etc, they’re just squares on the map…

See Harry Beck (who did the redesign in 1933) http://homepage.ntlworld.com/clivebillson/tube/tube.html

Marc

and what about the original by harry beck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Beck) from 1931..?

http://www.latebytes.nl/archives/2008/10/28/beckmap1.jpg

(whole story: http://www.latebytes.nl/archives/2008/10/different-views.html)

You left out the Moscow Metro: http://www.metro-map.ru/map.php

This to me is one of the most incredible and efficient underground systems in the world. During normal working hours there’s a train every 2 minutes, and that shortens to every minute during peak time. Late at night the times between trains are stretched out as the numbers of commuters start dwindling. The Moscow Metro moves about 7 to 8 million people all over the city in a single day, every day.

Well said Marc and Tom. Exactly what I was about to say. I don’t want to jump on the band waggon saying ‘Oooh you missed my small town’ but surely in a post about something which has set such a trend, a precedent for years to come, you must mention the inventor of it?

Without Harry Beck’s design of the London Underground map most of these wouldn’t have existed in this form.

Shaun

And look what Samantha Loman used the map system for : http://streetanatomy.com/2010/03/01/mind-your-gap/

You forgot Hong Kong.

http://www.itu.int/WORLD2006/visitor_info/images/00001085.jpg

Where map moscow metro ?

Great list ! Glasgow is so nice
btw, where is the Tokio ?

You HAVE to include this one.. it’s fantastic

http://www.twitpic.com/164efr

Sweet.thanks for the share.But I missed seeing Budapest, Hungary.

Hey Phil,

The Moscow Metro is on the second page of the post.

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/03/design-around-the-world-metro-maps/2/

If you missed page 2, make sure you check it out…

Great idea for a post these are awesome looking. I dont see one for NYC though!

Got to say, that US surely makes the most clean and understandable maps.

Here is latvian railway map: http://pv.lv/?cat=298

Thanks Jon!

Couldn’t find the pagination links at the time, so I guessed there was only the one page.

Where is russian one?

Didn’t expected to see Bucharest, Romania in this list
Thanks

Great blog.

If you like this subject, do check out the book of world subway maps:
http://www.amazon.com/Transit-Maps-World-Mark-Ovenden/dp/0143112651

Mark

I’m glad to see my city’s metro map.
It’s the Brussels one, from Belgium.

Original post, congrats!

LOVE the Moscow Metro map. Not only are the stations themselves beautiful, but the system is pretty efficient (about the only thing the Soviets ever did right); having the circular ring that goes around the city definitely saves a lot of time. Last I heard, there were plans to start building another ring further out, but who knows if they’ll ever get funding for it. Either way, still a great map!

Yes. (I live there, too) Here is Budapest’s: http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com/image-files/budapest-metro-system.jpg

Amazing!
But you forget about Moscow.
Here is it – The Moscow Map
http://goon.ru/info/metro/maps/moscow_metro_map.gif

you forget to put maps metro in my country: PORTUGAL

Lisbon: http://www.metrolisboa.pt/Default.aspx?tabid=79

Oporto: http://www.metrodoporto.pt/en/PageGen.aspx?SYS_PAGE_ID= (select “System map”)

It’s nice how the metro map of Helsinki has minute markings between the stations. It makes trip planning a lot easier. Seems like when the map is simple enough they can put some extra info on it too.

Tell you what Jess, for all its foolishness there are many things the Soviet regime did surprisingly right. Affordable and free medical treatment, affordable schooling for all, affordable basic foods, affordable and widespread electricity (even in most of the tiniest, remote villages) etc. But yes, it was time for them to go. I agree about the Moscow Metro Map though – love it!

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh191/Astur-Luso/MetroLisboa-2.png

Lisbon, Portugal

I did a project on schematic maps for public transport a while ago …

Given that you’ve shown the existing Delhi metro map I’d like to show you all my suggested redesign fo the same : http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?portfolio_id=1758749&individual_id=224566

Malaysia Rail Network http://www.rapidkl.com.my/network/rail/railmap

I also mentioned it above Jack – and then someone told me it’s on page two: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/03/design-around-the-world-metro-maps/2/

When me and my girlfriend recently visited Barcelona we didn’t have a tourist map and ended up using the tram, metro and bus maps to find our way round the city. It was confusing at first but eventually we sussed it out by following the tram lines! We didn’t want to catch public transport everywhere in case we missed anything that we would have seen by foot!

You show Montreal, Quebec’s metro map…but fail to include it in your list. What gives?

Metro de Madrid: http://www.metromadrid.es/export/sites/metro/comun/documentos/planos/Planoespsincorte08.pdf

Really neat to see the different types and layouts of buses and subways of various cities.

interesting to see what the rest of the world have to use.

Taipei, Taiwan
http://web.trtc.com.tw/img/all/routemapNH.jpg

Excuse but the Metro in Lima its a dream. We have no subway in the city and the only thing this project is a system of buses that run on natural gas.
And the whole system via only 1 is currently running.

these are cool http://www.oberholtzer-creative.com/visualculture/2008/12/subway-map-graphics/

read post in google reader, and also missed page 2.

Love it !!

protesto falta el de la Ciudad de México…
check out the one of México City

Metro do Rio de Janeiro: http://www.metrorio.com.br/estacoes.htm

Please update the Delhi Metro map. It looks terrible. There is a better map available on this URL. Please update it.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Delhi_metro_rail_network.svg

Nice collection!

But my hometown is missing: VIENNA
http://www.wienerlinien.at/media/files/2008/SVP_Deutsch_3288.pdf

awesome collection!
given that I take the public transportation, especially the metro, when I’m overseas, these just fascinate me!

These are great collections! How about making them interactive, with mouseover tooltips, clickable station names etc? Check out this tool (free) which can import the metro map, and then allow you to convert them into interactive maps: http://www.imapbuilder.net

You forgot this one: http://www.dart.org/maps/printrailmap.asp

Hey!
Chile has a cool metro map too!

http://www.metrosantiago.cl/estacion/plano-red

^^

Oslo, Norway http://ruter.no/PageFiles/203/TkartK2008-08press.pdf

Nice comparison.

L.A. (Los Angeles) is missing!

You forgot Washington, DC. Easiest and cleanest Metro I’ve ever been on. Not to mention the most important city in the world.

I know a lot of people are mentioning what you forgot, which is understandable (how many can you squeeze in, right?) You’ve got a good variation here, but for me, the main ‘missing’ map would be London. It’s a design classic.

the Kiev one was kind of nice

http://www.mexicoenrenta.com.mx/metro_2009.html

http://www.sbg.ac.at/ipk/avstudio/pierofun/mexico/air-scan/metro.jpg

metro mexico df.

Thanks : )

why don’t have Kuala Lumpur maps？？？

where is the ankara…

Great, could have included singapore smrt map too

where is the metro map of Vienna????

Wie wärs mit DIESER hier? Hows about that map from Vienna? http://homepage.univie.ac.at/horst.prillinger/metro/m/largemap-s.png

greets!

yup, die ist gut, danke!

Hi Nina,

hier bei thread 108 wäre eh was gewesen ! look nina, thread # 108 there is a Vienna map for u

habe einen schönen tag, have a nice day!

ausssiefan from Graz – we don’t have a sub here

#108
tinitron
March 17th, 2010 at 4:24 pm

Nice collection!

But my hometown is missing: VIENNA
http://www.wienerlinien.at/media/files/2008/SVP_Deutsch_3288.pdf

You have cities with one line, but not Los Angeles, which has five?

Thank you for the maps!

Athens, Greece Is the Best

This goes to show how the Uk is far behind Europe in public transport, we really need to sort our transport out!

Great Blog by the way!

awesome!

Bilbao metro map:

http://www.fibell.com/web/cientifico/images/mapa_metro_bilbao.gif

Valencia (Spain)
http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/val/valencia-map.gif

Bilbao (Spain)
http://www.emta.com/IMG/jpg/mapmetro.jpg

Mallorca (Spain)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Metro_de_palma_de_mallorca.jpg

This is the Bilbao Metro (spain)
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_de_Bilbao

Madrid’s and Valencia’s (both in Spain) are missing. See metrovalencia.com or metromadrid.com or http://www.metromadrid.es/en/index.html for more information

Very nce work!

Would you like to add the Metro map from Valencia, in Spain?¿

Here you have the link to the urban map:
http://www.metrovalencia.es/descargas/pdf/Plano%20Red.pdf

and the link to the whole line (it goes until the nearest towns, but it’s not a train line, those are different ones)
http://www.metrovalencia.es/descargas/pdf/Plano%20Red.pdf

You are also missing

Valencia, Spain http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/val/valencia-map.gif

Bilbao, Spain http://www.getxo.net/media/Vivir/transpor/plano_metro.gif

Seville (Sevilla), Spain http://www.metrodesevilla.org/typo3temp/pics/66233bee36.jpg

No MADRID??

It´s one of the best Metro in Europe.

http://mundoviaje.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/metro-madrid.jpg

Como puede faltar el metro de Madrid, que es uno de los mejores del mundo. Sin duda entre los 3 mejores de Europa y entre los 5 del mundo.

You missed Bilbao in the north of spain

Bilbao – Spain
http://www.metrobilbao.net/cas/usuario/mapainteractivo.html

Valencia – Spain
http://www.metrovalencia.es/planos.php?page=103

Sevilla – Spain
http://www.sevilla21.com/metro/

Este el el plano del “Transmilenio” en Bogota Colombia.
http://transmilenio.surumbo.com/index2.php3?domain=transmilenio.surumbo.com&alias=&frames=0&referer=http://www.transmilenio.gov.co/WebSite/Default.aspx

Why not mexico?
http://sdtj.iespana.es/mapametro1.jpg

Thanks for the nice collection. It’s a great reference.

Nice post It is really interesting to see metro maps from around the globe. There are some pretty interesting designs among this selection. Thanks for sharing.

The strange part was how sentimental I got looking at some of those maps from places I’ve visited. Berlin’s in particular really captures so much of the city’s culture, as does Tokyo. Seeing stations and remembering which friends lived there got my very emotional. Some of those maps I carried round in my back pocket until they were falling apart. It’s the first thing I obtain in a new city and I’d rather be without a phone than a map in any strange place.

To produce such maps is not easy job but with these maps every person who has interest to visit round world feel very easy to explore each corner of the world

Love it,thanks

I think you used a metro + bus map for Lausanne, which explains why there are so many lines in a modestly sized city.

I love this site. I’m a subway map enthusiast, and I’ll be building my own personal collection based on what I see here; thanks! I’ll post 12+ maps at a time on my apartment walls! Thanks for the site!

Well good point Ali! Where indeed is cairo – if the metro operator could be bothered to produce a map then maybe it would be here, but they don’t which is a shame because otherwise it is a nice system. We must shame them into making a decent map!!

…and if you want to see all these maps in print, check this out:

http://www.amazon.com/Transit-Maps-World-Mark-Ovenden/dp/0143112651

I’m an artist in Somerville, MA. I create these prints that I call “Mapuccino’s” that map intimate moments in people’s lives in the form of transit maps. Check them out, comments welcome!: http://www.mapuccino.com.

wow, the Delhi map is a little overwhelming!

The Delhi map has got even more complicated – and it will keep growing! http://www.delhimetrorail.com/zoom-route-map.aspx

Love this! Have always been fascinated by subway map designs. Never realised there are so many cities with metro lines! Got to love the nearest subway to me – Glasgow, it’s simply a circle line!

The Berlin map still haunts me, absolutely loved the place but looking at that map when your lost gives you a headache

Beijing, China and the South Korean one look very interesting to me.

Like Berlin, Germany and Busan, South Korea

Cool article, love it! But does Barcelona really have that many subway lines?

Prague is also missing..

http://www.dpp.cz/download-file/3482/schéma_1_metro_a_tram_bez_zastávek_denní_provoz.pdf