What might have been. Rapid Transit in Philadelphia.
Before SEPTA released its new transit map in 2019, the transit agency did a series of what-if maps in the style of other worldwide transit agencies called Transit Map Tuesdays. Check them out below.
Maps of Philadelphia transit throughout the years.
The Reading Lines sure get short shrift in their pale pink lines, but the map is certainly a clean look that feels very much of its time in the early 1970s. Lumping all of SEPTA in green makes it appear you could get a single seat ride from Bridge-Pratt (Frankford) all the way to Norristown. If only! PATCO appearing in black is also an interesting choice. As is whatever this map came from that cost $3.95 in 1972.
This map introduces some colors we’re still very familiar with today. The Market-Frankford Line is rendered in blue, the Broad Street Line in orange and even the Norristown High Speed Line in purple. The Reading and Penn Central lines are in shades of green but fairly easy for at least a non-color blind person to differentiate. Service extends out to far flung destinations like Pottstown, Quakertown and even continuing service from West Trenton to Newark. AMTRAK shows up on the map, but only in parenthesis following Penn Central descriptions.
This 1976 SEPTA map appears to be a black-and-white version of the 1974 map above. SEPTA’s High Speed lines and PATCO are in black and commuter lines run by Penn Central and the Reading Railroads are displayed as an outline.
Below is a modern redrawing of the 1979 SEPTA map drawn by Lucius Kwok of Felt Tip Software. As Cameron Booth of Transit Maps notes, the map is quite faithful to the original and compared to the “blobby mess” that succeeded it, this map is indeed “gorgeous.”
This map predates the opening of Market East Station, though it does show it under construction. Also coming soon, the Airport line. This map also shows SEPTA service to diesel destinations like West Chester and Newtown.
This is one of the earliest maps to feature Market East Station and the Center City Commuter Tunnel. There are several items to note regarding this particular map. The map shows proposed 70th and 84th Street Stations on the Airport line. It also shows bus substitution between Fox Chase and Newtown.
By 1986, SEPTA was experimenting with coloring the regional rail lines. The line colors matched the train destination placards and other signage for the lines. This is the first map I’ve come across that includes the R1-R8 designations. The three Center City stations are denoted as large octagons and the common lines that run through all the stations and northward to Glenside are shown in gray. And since nothing is ever really original, it is interesting to see this design choice basically mirrors the “Silver Line” concept from the City of Philadelphia’s Transit Plan for 2045.
This 2001 map includes all of SEPTA’s rail transit, including subways, trolleys, regional rail and even PATCO. This version of the map shows regional rail lines in black with destination points in the colors of the various regional rail lines. A couple anomalies to note on this map. The R5 circle at Thorndale seems to have taken off for Harrisburg on the map. And the PATCO line shows as an outline when underground, and a solid line when above ground. This design element doesn’t seem necessary and isn’t carried over to the Broad Street Line or Market-Frankford Line.
Not much changes between 2001 and 2010 in the SEPTA maps. The regional lines go from gray to gray-blue and the Delaware County trolleys go from brown to green, matching the city trolleys. Also, the Route 15 trolley has been shoehorned into the map, further cluttering the whole thing.
In 2015, the Pope came to town and to accommodate the expected masses, SEPTA reduced the number of entry points into the system. This map was released to show where you could still get aboard regional rail or the subways and elevated trains. Not sure if this was helpful to anyone.
Looking to showcase the transit agency’s 19 frequent bus routes, this SEPTA map adds buses with at less than 15-minute headways to its transit maps. It also is SEPTA’s first map release exiting the “blobby mess” era. It is also, a city specific schematic map as it doesn’t show PATCO or Regional Rail lines or stations at all.
The release of the High Frequency map was only the first map SEPTA released in 2019. The SEPTA Transit Network for Philadelphia and Vicinity showed all bus routes. Regional Rail lines are there but very de-emphasized into a thin gray line. It is interesting to note that the two 2019 maps differ in how they show station stops and that the vicinity map is a geographic map, while the high frequency map is strictly schematic.
In 2021, SEPTA unveiled its Metro plan. It featured an overhauled visual identity program, unifying all of the rapid transit lines under the Metro name and committing to showing one line to represent one service pattern. Particularly interesting about this map, it is the first time the King of Prussia extension to the Norristown High Speed Line appears on an official map.
By late 2023, SEPTA continued to enhance the Metro branding and began rolling out the below map online and in some stations.
Back in February SEPTA updated its bus map, attempting to show regional rail, subway, elevated rail, trolleys and buses all on the same map. Additionally the map showed frequency of bus transit via color and thickness of lines. SEPTA then asked for comment on the new maps to flavor the next round of maps.
Today, the transit agency released maps that took into account that feedback and some significant changes have been made.
The rail lines now more closely resemble the existing map and the Center City insert now includes the subway stops but still not the actual lines.
Personally I’d prefer the lines be represented on the inset but I do understand the attempt to streamline the amount of information shown.
SEPTA gets bold with new transit map [WHYY]
SEPTA Frequency Map v2 [png]
Just a little more than three years after a private citizen produced a frequent service map for SEPTA, the agency has a frequency map of its own. Coming on the heels of updating its frequent bus routes from 10 to 19 (buses with a headway of less than 15 minutes) the map is the agency’s first attempt at a newly styled bus map in decades.
It’s actually two maps that have been released. The first is a new system map showing the 80+ bus routes that connect with the city of Philadelphia. The most frequent routes are shown in red, the routes that run every thirty minutes or less are in teal and those that run every 60 minutes or less are denoted in gray.
The maps are posted to SEPTA’s website and a survey is provided for feedback. This is the latest step in SEPTA’s reworking of its bus network.
15-15-5 Networks [SEPTA]
Frequency Map [png]
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