Presenting the latest in my series of transit-styled diagrams (see also the Interstate System in the style of the London Underground and a Washington, DC Metro map redesign), the entire Amtrak passenger rail system in the style of a subway map. Surprisingly, I haven’t seen another take on this anywhere else on the internet, but I guess it is a fairly monumental undertaking (Good thing I’m the patient type!). Every last station is shown, the result of a lot of research on both Amtrak’s official site and Wikipedia. Shown above are the two final versions of the map – one with all stations and routes listed, and one as more of an abstraction: simply the coloured route lines without any extraneous markings or text. The third image shows a detail of the map: the extremely congested and complex Northeast Corridor.
The next five images attempt to show some of my working for a project of this scale. Once I compiled a list of all the routes and stations, I roughly plotted them on a map of the United States to see the geographical “lie of the land”. This also helped me work out where routes would sit in relation to each other to minimise line overlap on the final diagram (Images 4 and 5). Once the routes were all plotted, I removed the underlying map to view only the routes (Image 6). From here, it was a matter of straightening and simplifying the routes to the 45° angles seen on most subway maps. A comparison between the geographical reality of the system and the final simplified diagram can be seen in Image 7.
Only a few parts of the map caused me major problems: the southern end of the Northeast Corridor, where the routes branch after Alexandria; the interface between the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin routes in California; and most of all, the sheer number of routes coming into Chicago’s Union Station. For much of the working time, the lines met in a very ugly “C” shape, and it was only right at the end of development that I finally reconfigured it into a more aesthetically pleasing and logical rectangle (Image 8).
Log in to Flickr to view large-size versions of the two maps (4000 pixels wide). Click here to view the route map with station names. Click here to see the route map only.
Awesome as usual. Let me know if you put this one up for sale as a poster. I have your US Interstates map and it’s fantastic.
Pierre, that’s the eventual idea. Probably the usual rounds of corrections to be made first, though!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Pierre Bastien. Pierre Bastien said: RT @Chaos_Boy: New design work – Amtrak passenger rail services (every station!) as subway map. Blog: http://bit.ly/carQkL or Flickr: ht … [...]
Very nice!
I`m from Rio de Janeiro and here we have a poor subway sistem, so i`ve decide to dream a little and create a utpic subway sistem in a map.
Here (http://carlosfelipe.net/2010/05/17/transporte/) I talk about all the problens in my city`s transoport, but it`s in portuguese so I don`t know if you`ll e able to read it. But I`ve done similar map sutdies to first, think were the lines should be and then to draw a clearer map of them, based mostly on the london underground witch I think, uses the most suitable features and simbols. Those 45º do the charm indeed.
Map 1: http://www.carlosfelipe.net/cfnet/imgs/fotosblog/mapa-completo-normal.zip
Map 2: http://www.carlosfelipe.net/cfnet/imgs/fotosblog/mapa-completo-linhas-detacadas.jpg
Final map: http://www.carlosfelipe.net/cfnet/imgs/fotosblog/metro-rio-final.jpg
You will notice that most o the stations don`t have names becouse they don`t actualy exist, but I`ve left a space for those names. I even name some, and of course included the existing stations names.
If you like it just post a comment or send me an e-mail.
Very well done, and much appreciated! I would love to purchase a poster as well! Thank you
Looks very nice, one comment so far: You misspelled Ottumwa.
Also, I’m curious, it looks simplish on the map, what was the problem with linking Capital Corridor and San Joaquin? And I agree, the southern end of the Northeast Corridor looks like hell to plot out.
Andrew, if that’s the only spelling error, I’ll be well pleased! Well spotted!
The San Joaquin/Capitol Corridor problems were mainly to do with which trains stopped where and how the split in the San Joaquin route at Stockton worked. Quite a few hastily scribbled diagrams to make sure I had it all worked out properly!
Will you add VIA Routes?
Could be a project for the futures, definitely.
What’s the best way to find out when a poster becomes available?
I’ll definitely send interested parties an email announcing when posters are available. Shouldn’t be long: I just have to do some test prints to make sure everything’s okay first.
[...] a minor consolation, an enterprising graphic designer has recast the Amtrak route map in the style of subway diagrams, showing stops by route rather than [...]
Thanks for letting us link to your Amtrak map. As you mentioned on our forum, a lot of interest in it.
Consider joining our forum, we’d love to have you be a member.
MrFSS (Tom) AU Forum Manager
Very cool to see! Thanks for your hard work. When you have posters for sale, I’d be interested to know. Saw the link to this at Amtrak Unlimited Forum.
The stations are unreadable even with enlargment before the station names pixelate.
How do I get to see the station names?
I am using Microsoft Photo Editor…
The images on this blog are intentionally small. There is a much larger version on my Flickr account, which can be accessed WITHOUT a Flickr login at: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4134/4785807080_dbb15cb743_o.jpg
I did mean it when i wrote that type not horizontal is a fail. I’m sure you can fit all horizontal type into the Amtrak diagram as well. There seems to be plenty of space, even in the Northeast. Alternate one name above and one below the lines, as London does or Berlin.
Ouch! Well, I guess I can’t win ‘em all.
In principle, I think you’re right, Erik: the only problematic area would be the Michigan Services out of Chicago towards Detroit… everything is pretty tight around there. Also, I wonder whether alternating names above and below route lines would force me into using “ticks” for stations to make things clear which is which… I’m pretty happy with the simple elegance of dots for stations where trains stop. Still, food for thought: a good designer should never assume that his first solution is the best one – thanks for reminding me of that!
Looking forward to the poster!
I think the angled station names are a good compromise. Doing all-horizontal for the Michigan Services would require some serious spatial exaggeration, and I think it’s important to maintain a semblance of geographic accuracy, as you have.
Outstanding work! This is my first time on your site and I hope the Amtrak Subway Map, as well as the Geographically accurate Amtrak maps, will be for sale soon. These are both very unique. Job well done. Please let us know as soon as they can be purchased.
1 quick correction for you as well:
-The Cardinal does not stop at Burke Centre, VA
Justin,
thanks for your visit and your comment. I’ve already had the Cardinal/Burke Centre error pointed out to me, so rest assured it will be fixed on the final poster. Still: one typo and one scheduling error so far – not too shabby!
Given the complexity of the map and the number of the destinations I would say its nothing short of amazing!
One more typo… It’s Meriden, CT not Meridien. A terrific job by the way and I hope Amtrak decides to license this from you for its own schedules and maps.
Jim, thanks for that correction and words of encouragement. Much appreciated!
One more minor typo:
Hermann, MO (not Herman) — it’s an old German river town. And you even got the new name of that route correct — Missouri River Runner! (I just rode it last week, and it was actually on time, which restored my faith in Amtrak just a teeny bit).
But all in all, a great job! I like your Washington DC Metro map too, mostly better than the original, as much as I like the original.
Great work, i would also be interested in a poster of this!
-Ben