Many transit maps for the New York City Subway have been designed since the subway's inception in 1904. Because the subway was originally built by three separate companies, an official map for all subway lines was not created until 1940, when the three companies were consolidated under a single operator. Since then, the official map has undergone several complete revisions, with intervening periods of comparative stability.
Since April 2025, the MTA's official diagram has been inspired by a design by Massimo Vignelli. The MTA previously used a Vignelli–inspired map from 1972 to 1979, when that map was replaced by a design from Michael Hertz Associates, commissioned by John Tauranac and the MTA Subway Map Committee. There are also special maps for weekend service changes, and special events. There are several privately produced schematics that are available either online or in published form. Other subway map spinoffs exist as well, such as New York City Subway track schematics and maps of proposed expansions of the system.
Early maps
Original maps for the privately opened Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), which opened in 1904, showed subway routes as well as elevated routes. However, IRT maps did not show Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) routes; conversely, BMT maps did not show IRT routes, even after the Dual Contracts between the IRT and BMT. In fact, even in 1939, the year before the unification of the IRT, BMT, and Independent Subway System (IND) into one entity, maps by private businesses were still being printed showing only the routes of one company. The three subway companies also published their own maps, showing their own routes.A History of New York City Subway Maps Routes were not distinguished from each other on subway maps until 1958. The first route maps were aesthetically pleasing, but had the perception of being more geographically inaccurate than the diagrams today.
1940–56: Separate companies' maps After the subway operating companies were taken over by the Board of Transportation in July 1940, maps continued to be issued until 1942 in the characteristic style of the individual companies. Thus the IRT Division issued maps in the style of the former IRT company, and the BMT Division issue maps in the style of the former BMT company. In order to have an integrated design, however, the Board brought in externally produced maps. From 1943 to 1952, the Board purchased stocks of Andrew Hagstrom's maps, overprinted with the Board's service information, and issued them as de facto official maps from token booths (e.g. 1948).
In 1953, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) took over the subway from the Board of Transportation. They continued to issue Hagstrom maps as official maps until 1956, but instituted two changes. First: from 1954 onwards, they acquired stocks of subway maps designed by Stephen Voorhies and printed with promotional material for the Union Dime Bank. This was done to save money, as the Voorhies map was free, while Hagstrom charged for theirs. To keep the publications valid, the NYCTA periodically sent updated service information to both Hagstrom and Voorhies to be printed in service tables and, where necessary, incorporated into the map. Second: the NYCTA solicited proposals to create an in-house map design to save money and have more control of the map.
1950s and 1960s redesigns
In 1955, George Salomon submitted a proposal to the NYCTA to redesign not only the map but the entire system of nomenclature.George Salomon (c. 1955), three typescript booklets, held in the Archives of the New York Transit Museum, Brooklyn: (a) "Out of the Labyrinth: A plea and a plan for improved passenger information on the New York subways". (b) "Orientation". (c) "Orientation on the New York Subway (a ‘scrapbook’)". Salomon was a German émigré, and his proposed system of route names and colors mirrored that of the Berlin U-Bahn. He had also spent a year studying under Eric Gill in England and expressed admiration for the London Underground map. His map adopted the same modernist style as Harry Beck's London map, and was the first map of the New York City Subway to follow a systematic visual language in diagrammatic form. The NYCTA rejected his systematic revision of nomenclature but did use his diagram of lines as its official map, which was implemented in 1958. After delivering his map, Salomon had no further control of it, and disliked the NYCTA's addition of touristic information to his minimalist design,Interview with Mathilde Salomon, widow of George Salomon, in 2004 such as the map of 1964.
To relieve bottlenecks in the subway system, a series of major works were carried out in the 1960s. One of them, the Chrystie Street Connection in Chinatown, Manhattan, had a major impact on the subway map, as it unified the BMT and IND divisions of the subway, thereby rendering obsolete the three-colored network maps that been used since the 1930s. The Transit Authority had to devise a new map design by the time the Chrystie Street Connection opened, so in 1964, they opened the Subway Map Competition to the general public. There were three winners; one of them, R. Raleigh D'Adamo, submitted an explanatory report with his map, which detailed his innovative proposal to color-code the subway by individual routes rather than by historic operating company. This concept was implemented by Dr. Stanley Goldstein of Hofstra University, working as a consultant to the TA, and by Dante Calise, art director at Diamond Packaging, the firm that printed the subway map. On November 26, 1967, when the new connections opened, the new map came into use. There was also a map to explain all the newly rerouted services.
Vignelli map
The TA's 1967 map had used Raleigh D'Adamo's principle of color-coding for the first time, but it suffered from what the cartographer Massimo Vignelli called "fragmentation" and was not well received. The following year, the parent body Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) was formed over the TA, chaired by William J. Ronan, who wanted to create a modern brand image for this new body. While the Unimark signage project was still being finished up with the creation of the New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual, Vignelli went to Ronan with a mock-up of part of the map for Lower Manhattan. p. 47 Ronan approved it, and in July 1970 the TA awarded Unimark a contract to design a new system map.
The map was put together in the Unimark Office by Joan Charysyn under Vignelli's design direction. In April 1971, Vignelli left Unimark to set up Vignelli Associates with his wife and business partner, Lella Vignelli, also a partner in Unimark. By this time, the map was almost complete, but was subject to corrections and modifications requested by Raleigh D'Adamo, who was now Head of the Office of Inspection and Review at the MTA. These changes were carried out by Charysyn, who also oversaw the printing of the map. Unimark's liaison with the MTA during this project was handled by Norbert Oehler. The map was unveiled by Ronan on August 4, 1972 at a ceremony in the station at 57th Street and Sixth Avenue. Starting the following weekend, the maps began to be installed in stations and in subway cars. The maps became available at token booths for riders on August 7. It cost $105,000 to produce. Along with the map, a subway directory was unveiled. This specific one showed how to get from 57th Street to the other subway stations in the system in an alphabetical listing.
The Vignelli diagram was inspired by Harry Beck's London Tube map, with modifications such as the addition of geographical features. Though critically acclaimed (and later recognized in design circles), the subway map proved to be unpopular with many riders. The MTA deemed the map flawed due to its placement of geographical elements, specifically in the sense that elements only ran horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The cartographer Jake Berman said that, although diagrammatic maps worked well in other cities where "the streets are so confusing that it doesn't matter if the subway diagram doesn't match", people kept cross-referencing the Vignelli map against Manhattan's street grid, which caused unease. Critics also disliked the map's colors, which included the use of brown for rivers. In 1974, William Ronan was replaced by David Yunich as chairman of the MTA. Yunich appointed Fred Wilkinson, who formed the Subway Map Committee to design a new map to replace Vignelli's.
Tauranac/Hertz map The Tauranac/Hertz design, which replaced the Vignelli design in 1979, contained elements that were more curved and "organic looking" while clarifying the nuances and complexities of the three former systems. First created by Michael Hertz, the design remained in use through 2025, with some stylistic differences and updates reflecting subway expansions since then.
History
1978 redesign At the end of 1976, Wilkinson was assigned from Transit to be Executive Officer of Surface operations and stepped down from the Subway Map Committee.Minutes of the Subway Map Committee, December 17, 1976. For half a year, the committee did not meet; and then in the summer of 1977, John Tauranac was assigned chair of the committee and meetings resumed.Minutes of Subway Map Committee, June 30, 1977 The committee, working with the design firm Michael Hertz Associates, experimented with designs and in February 1978 Tauranac organized an exhibition entitled "The Good, The Bad ... The Better? A New York City Subway Map Retrospective" at the Cityana Gallery run by Benjamin Blom, exhibiting the committee's latest prototype map and offering a questionnaire for testing public reaction.New York Times, February 9, 1978, Paul Goldberger, "Putting the Subways on a New Map" Visitors said they liked the geographic information but disliked the use of a single color for all subway lines.Minutes of Subway Map Committee, March 3, 1978. In response, Tauranac then prepared a version with two colors, blue for the former IRT lines and red for the former BMT and IND lines. This was exhibited at the Cooper Union in April, when Tauranac debated with Massimo Vignelli in a public battle between the two schools of map-making.The Times, May 8, 1978, Michael Leapman, column: "Leapman in America" The final design used a trunk-colored scheme, in which services running on a common main line, or "trunk" line, share the same color.
Tauranac led the 12-person Subway Map Committee, which comprised TA staff and members of the public and three staff at Michael Hertz Associates.MTA Press Releases #86 and #87, June 24, 1979 Everybody contributed to the final design, and the map cannot be said to be designed by one individual.This statement is based on the existing minutes of the Subway Map Committee and interviews by Peter B. Lloyd with the traceable members of the committee, related MTA staff, and staff of Michael Hertz Associates According to The New York Times, the sculptor and painter Nobuyuki "Nobu" Siraisi drew sketches for the new version of the map, while psychologist Arline Bronzaft conducted studies to determine riders' responses to the old and new maps. Siraisi rode all of the routes with his eyes closed in order to feel each track curve, which he then drew in a sketchbook. The curves in Siraisi's drawings helped to alleviate a feeling of disorientation that many riders felt when looking at the straight lines of the Vignelli map, as had been observed in Bronzaft's studies. The final assignment of colors was made by Tauranac.