New York City releases first new subway map in decades

New York's Metropolitan Transport Authority has released a redesigned map of its subway system, which maintains the colours of the prior one while "simplifying" it.

The redesigned map was unveiled on 2 April and will act as a wayfinding tool for the 3.6 million daily users of the city's subway system. It features clean, geometric shapes that represent landmasses, transected by thick graphic lines rendered in the well-known colours that mark each line.

Depicted on the map are subway lines and select bus and ferry services, as well as some commuter lines.

It was designed by the in-house design service for the Metropolitan Transport Authority's (MTA) Creative Services Mapping Department.

"Easier for the eye to follow"

MTA emphasised the simplicity of the design, as well as its accessibility for digital usage and for a wide array of people.

"[L]ike many major subway systems around the world, [it] utilizes a diagrammatic style, employing bold, straight lines, making it much easier for the eye to follow and more suitable for digital users," said the MTA.

"The white background, bold colors, horizontal writing and use of black dots make the map more ADA-friendly and easier for people with low-vision or cognitive disabilities to read."

MTA will implement the new design in physical and digital forms across the hundreds of stations that make up the transportation system, as well as within the train cars.

Digital updates also include up-to-date information, with trains moving on each line in real time.

The design replaces a long-standing iteration of the map designed in 1979 by Michael Hertz Associates, which has remained, with some alterations, in use since. The Michael Hertz version featured a scale more akin to the geography of the city, with less legible subway routes.

The MTA and many commenters have noted the 2025 map's similarities to a 1972 design by Italian designer Massimo Vignelli and Joan Charysyn.

Because of the massive pool of riders and the length of time in service, changes to the map have sparked a variety of reactions from New Yorkers.

Garrett Corcoran, design director for local graphic studio Order, told Dezeen that the map is always a "lightning rod" for opinion, but that the new design works well for what the designers were aiming to do, adding that these public projects can often become oversaturated with add-ons when given up for more public debate.

"It works with the rest of the system"

"When we think about the role of a transportation map, it's to provide clarity at key decision points along the rider's journey, which is exactly what the rest of the MTA's signage system is designed to do," he said.

"Something that's more geographically 'accurate', like the old map, isn't inherently bad, but it's just not serving the right purpose," he added. "The new one is clear, it's obvious, and it works with the rest of the system."

"Not to mention the visual language of the subway is so important to the identity of New York City, seeing the map realigned with the original system just feels…right."

Graphic designer and Pentagram partner Michael Bierut, a once-collaborator of Vignelli, agreed that the new map is a fitting update to the 1972 design.

"This new official version, to be implemented over the next few months, mitigates some of the things that 'normal people' – ie non-designers – found aggravating about the 1972 version, but is still beautifully faithful to its precise geometric logic," he told Dezeen.

"Anything but generic, it takes an only-in-New York position: tough, resilient, beautiful."

The digital maps have already been implemented, while the physical ones will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Maps for late-night and winter-time schedules were also released.

Alongside the map design, the system has implemented more screens that indicate when a train is arriving, and, for the first time, some of these screens will have arrows indicating on which side of the track an inbound train is arriving.

Other news from New York City includes a recent mandate to lessen the amount of scaffolding present on the city streets and a proposal for Penn Station that references the original neoclassical design.

The imagery is courtesy of MTA.

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