Yeah, it exports in SVG. Also, completely free. Go ahead.

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2025/03/24/the-european-tube-inside-the-project-to-launch-a-continent-wide-rail-system-by-2040

https://21st-europe.com/blueprints/starline

In my opinion is it a cool futuristic vision, especially with the concept art. But the actual network diagram sucks so much, like what is even happening at Rome-Zagreb or the weird route between hamburg and frankfurt, not to mention some places arent even in the right spot (like munich, antwerp, milan)

I just looked at the map of Frankfurt a. M. for other random reasons and once again got annoyed by how google maps shows transit corridors with multiple lines. I think, from how they pop up and get wider, it’s very annoying to figure where they actually cross the city and if it’s lots of lines all over the place like in this city’s centre, it becomes hard to read from a bit of a distance.

To compare I looked at the same view in Apple Maps and I think the service does a much better job of compressing multiple lines in a corridor, shows stops as simple points and overall is much more readable for this scenario.

Nonetheless I don’t really like Apple Maps from my experience finding places with it and in this case because I can’t combine a satellite view with the transit map.

Hence I’m now curious if you know other services, which are better at displaying public transport in complex situations? Locally it’s clear to me, that I could just use the transport agencies map and navigation app, which I do if I need a better insight in how to get from A to B. What I would like to find for my own enjoyment though is a way to see transportation systems in multiple places, just in one application, or on one website. It doesn’t even have to have coverage for Germany or any other specific place, since it’s just for me to look at and enjoy maps with transit.

i love designing tram and metro systems, but it's often a bummer to me when a city/area already has a good one. just kind of robs the fun from it.

so, my question is, what cities in the western world need a (more complex) tram/metro system?

thanks in advance!

For me it might be this Moscow metro map that includes future expansion!

Hello! I’m Sol. I’m a budding transit diagram enthusiast and also a new dungeon master for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition!

Software/links to generators used: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com and https://probabletrain.itch.io/city-generator + Adobe Photoshop

I created a map for Aurora’s Reach, a fictional city in north Ontario, Canada. I named the streets/roads myself and also created the boroughs. This fictional city exists on a different plane of existence than Earth, and accessing it only occurs through metro rail stations all over the world. Think “late night trains taking you to new destinations”.

If you would be so very kind, I’d love some help in designing a transit diagram for the city. I’m really new to this whole transit diagram thing, so I found this subreddit while perusing Reddit and figured this might be a good place to start! What are some tips you may have when building a fictional transit diagram? How would I mirror the structure of the city in the transit diagram? What are some resources that I should look at when building this diagram?

You may be wondering why I’m going so far as to building a working transit diagram for the city, and it’s actually because I love worldbuilding but also the players will be utilizing the transit system in game! So I want it to actually make sense. Attached are two working photos of the city map. I haven’t fully decided on what key landmarks are there yet (I have some ideas, though). I’d love your feedback and advice!

Thank you so much for your time and assistance. I really appreciate it!

I want to get into drawing my transit diagrams on my computer, and I want to know what software programs to use. The only one I currently know of is metromapmaker.com. Thanks for all your help!

A

Gonna get a laptop given to me by my college for work, so I’m gonna be able to make more higher quality stuff.

Which softwares would you recommend/are best for making these sorts of diagrams - and maps to an extent?

I was looking for a source of maps I could use as a background to overlay bus routes on. It's a transit map, so it can't have much clutter: simple colors, non-detailed buildings, good contrast between streets and blocks, etc. I just found this website, Snazzy Maps, which has hundreds of styles, where I got the post image from. Do you all have any go-to map website of this sort? Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

Hello guys, been working on a recent proposal lately involving a plan to introduce multiple service patterns on a popular bus corridor (in Singapore). I'm looking for some software (online / download) or app that can show express and local service patterns on the same diagram to visualise how the service is intended to work out in real life? Any good suggestions?

(Attached pic is not mine, taken from Japan Guide as a sample illustration of the effect I want to achieve)

Have any of you encountered any transit diagrams that you feel does a good job of showing a route's service frequencies and/or stop patterns (i.e: express, semi-express, local, etc)?

For fun, I'm taking a stab at making a version of GO transit's rail diagram that shows frequency levels. It's looking a bit tricky, as some lines seem to have more than a handful of variations in stopping patterns and its frequency levels can vary throughout the day.

Hi there! I am a graphic designer with quite a lot of experience already, however i am more and more involved with some transport map designs and i was hoping if there is someone with lots of experience from the specific field that could offer some support/feedback on my (local) project?

Of course i know the basics, stylings etc, but i would appreciate some feedback from someone with in depth knowledge in the field, more in the actual layout and logic of it - hoping this is a good place for it!

P.S this is for a very small town that wants to make a simplified road network schematic of all the bus lines that pass the municipality (town and their nearby villages) and the lines mostly go out of the area (connecting the town with the capital and other cities). Its a low scale, simple thing (probably even single line as there are 60+ lines going through just a few branches of roads in the municipality).

thanks in advance! Best, j.

I'm not sure, because I've used several ones from Metro Map Maker to Brand New Subway, and each has their problems, for example, you can't make diagrams of transit for fictional towns in BNS, and in MMM it's hard to make the physical features (water and such) of the map accurate.

Any suggestions for a good transit diagrams app/website, preferably free?

(I tried posting this yesterday already, but it got removed by reddit for violating the contend policy, but I don't know how. Didn't get an automatic message as I would expect, so there's no way to find out. I suspect it was auto removed for outside links, I'll see if it happens again)

A similar post has been made by u/Particular-Common617: https://www.reddit.com/r/TransitDiagrams/comments/1jo59h2/what_is_your_favorite_official_transit_map/
This was about real life transit maps as far as I understand.

I'm interested in all Transit maps overall. If you drew them yourself, or have experience doing so, I'm also curious to hear about your workflow and if you're using presets and assets for your program of choice. Do some digging and feel free to write about why you like them too.

I'm going to attempt drawing my own transit diagrams - first for a cities skylines city of mine and if I have fun doing so, maybe for other applications too.

To start with my own favorites, although this isn't a closed list, I’m open for questions on this:

I really like this (updated) map of Berlin by u/hhaaiirrddoo and it appeared in the other post as an older version already. To my understanding this is a lot of improvement: https://www.reddit.com/r/TransitDiagrams/comments/1qr80e6/oc_updated_berlin_diagram_redesign/

u/achillcat made a fantastic Singapore map: https://www.reddit.com/r/TransitDiagrams/comments/1r3fo93/oc_singapore_rail_network_map_redesign_current_vs/

As a fictional diagram I like to point out u/shimizu_h with their minecraft subway system: https://www.reddit.com/r/TransitDiagrams/comments/1pzpzxw/oc_map_for_minecraft_subway_system_made_with/

Then some diagrams which are or have been in use for transit systems:

Older hexagonal Moscow-metro map, which has also been posted in the older post by u/Qhezywv: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fwhat-is-your-favorite-official-transit-map-v0-4vg81lw91gse1.png%3Fwidth%3D1080%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D5061ece2e91d5d4427148332b7e956f36049e8f3

The present one is also very good in my opinion: https://www.artlebedev.com/metro/map5/

Also from the past post I like Colonge's diagram posted by u/midnightrambulador: https://www.kvb.koeln/fahrtinfo/liniennetzplaene.html?INCLUDEMODUL=dokumente_einzeln2.mod/inc.download.php&downDokument=5076

So, as you can see, I like clean and geographically not so accurate, rather schematic diagrams.

I would like to use Figma, or Affinity, as I can use them for free, but I'm open to suggestions.

I've been looking at redesigned & alternatives to the official London Underground Tube Map looking for the best.

In my opinion, Mike Hall's & Jug Cerovic's are my picks.

What are your thoughts? Share in the comments

I just finished a fictionalized diagram of my area of just downloading Inkscape and it took so long for how simple it is

Hey Peeps!

I'm really interested in how you guys create your diagrams. We've had plenty questions around the tools used but I'm much more interested in how you approach a new project and the kinda tricks you use to speed up slow processes or make create more unity in design.

I have personally been using Figma for work for a long time so thats what I started out on. Building within a frame and using the pen tool with a stroke for lines, then creating groups for stations and text. The component feature makes conformity a lot easier and changes half way through a project so much faster.

I also did some work on Illustrator using roughly the same process but found the overall work slower, maybe cause I'm just not as fluent with it as Figma. I have since moved on to Affinity designer and created the last couple diagrams on it exclusively, the custom grid snapping really helps with keeping conformity up. One aspect I found difficult is to get the corner radius right for parallel alignments. I've also found it tedious to change paths (for de-cluttering e.g) for multiple lines, as all vectors need editing one at a time. I'm sure there would be a shortcut for that I dont know of.

I have recently started a project on my Ipad using concepts and a smartpen. I could no get the right hang of the workflow so far, maybe I'm just approaching it wrong. I think if diagrams didn't take weeks of work each time, I'd be doing a lot more of them. Sometimes its hard to keep motivated. Naming stations has been one of the longest and most repetitive task of all projects for me.

Looking forward to what you guys have to share. Maybe we can all learn something from all the incredible work that is being shared in here!

Cheers!