Metro Maps of the World: v. 2 (World Maps) Hardcover – Apr 2005

I was given this book as a present last week and have been dipping in to it every day since. It is not just a book of maps - it is a book about maps and the text really brings things together. Although it is worth buying just for the pictures it is actually worth reading as well
I have never really thought about underground maps as maps before - just diagrams, but this book really opened my eyes.
Underground maps are such a synthesis of design functionality and art and this book brings them alive.
I will never look at a London tube map in the same light again.

Mark Ovenden has done an excellent job in compiling all the world's underground maps. He compares and analyzes the different styles, contrasts the maps with older, often rare historic editions. The most important metro cities are also illustrated with nice colour photos. All in all a great book for any metro enthusiats.

This book will appeal to so many different readers, from those casually browsing the excellent coloured diagrams...to those wanting to gain an insight into the history of how the metro-systems came about. You don't even have to be a connoisseur of the metro to enjoy this book. Use it as a reference or keep it on the coffee table, once you open the pages from the first to the last, you'll learn something new.

This is one of the most amazing books you will ever own! An absolute MUST for anyone who has ever travelled in a foreign city and a revelation if you have never looked into the history of your own local subway.
Students of Graphic Design will be enthralled as nothing like this has ever appeared before enabling side by side comparisons of almost 200 different cities' maps.
Its one of those books you don't necessarily see the immediate appeal of but as soon as you open it and see the inherent beauty and good design of a subway map from another city you'll be compelled to leaf thru and check all the places you've ever been, then come back and look through all the other cities. The similarities - and the differences will keep this book on your coffee table for months I promise!
This new edition is even better than the previous version, which in itself was an awesome collection of fascinating material from across the entire planet!
There seems to be many more illustrations now (the publishers claim almost 700 in a 144 page book) and more photo's of subway systems to compliment the maps themselves, a most welcome addition.
Small gaps in the history of certain major cities seem to have been filled (Paris, Montreal, Budapest, Madrid, Moscow, Kiev) and it seems almost every major map has been updated to the 2005 edition...making this now surely the leading world reference book on transit map design.
Also the author appears to have taken a more pragmatic view of cities whose maps do not conform to the international standard set by British designer Harry Beck.
Only criticism is that it's very hard to get hold of this book outside Britain - a bit of shame for a book with such a world focus, but thank God for amazon.co.uk!

What more can I say? - Well, this is rather more than just a collection of maps, it amounts to an essay on design, showing how pure-topographical maps have become stylised to show just the 'logical' structure of metros, and how the use of typography, colour and symbols can create an image for a metro system and a city as a whole. Ovenden also uses the maps to hang brief histories and surveys of the metro systems from, so the book's also a concise history of urban, underground and light rail.
Some fairly blurred reproduction of a couple of maps, and where did all the letter 'l's go on the Merseyrail map? - but otherwise difficult to fault. Handsomely-produced, with enough text to guide the reader through the book, and, most important of all, a lot of maps!