Historical Map: Transit Map of Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1969

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Historical Maps

A simple and modernist diagram of transit services in Halifax, produced in advance of the system converting from a mix of buses and trolleybuses to all diesel buses on January 1, 1970. The disclaimer that “a full-colour map will be available shortly” seems to indicate that this particular map was somewhat of a placeholder effort until a final solution was produced.

Despite that, it’s quite handsome in its simplicity and the clear explanatory text to lower right complements the map well. The fact that there’s only a handful of routes makes it easy to follow them across the map, even though everything is the same colour.

Of note is that this is the very first transit diagram produced by renowned design firm Gottschalk+Ash.

The final word: Simple, clean modernist design. Works well because of the relative simplicity of the network. Three-and-a-half stars.

Source: Canada Modern archives

2 Comments

  1. Can’t make heads or tails of it. Intermediate stops aren’t shown. It isn’t clear which lines terminate at the Mumford Terminal. You have to use a separate map to see the downtown routes.
    Makes me wonder what the coloured version looked like, though.

  2. The one thing I can say about it is that I wish the zone boundaries were more obvious; there are little route ticks here and there but you wouldn’t see them if you were tracing the route.

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