Customer Reviews

Northeast USA Passenger Rail Reference Map - Folded Laminate Edition

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Quick! You know the New York City subway system. How do you find the best Chinese food? Of course, not in Manhattan Chinatown but in Flushing Chinatown in Queens. Which train? Why the #7, of course, to the end of the line. Wait! I see a rail line to Port Washington with a stop at Flushing too. Quick where IS Port Washington, the end of the line? Have you ever found this place on a city map, in the telephone book? Of course not...it's too far out on Long Island! Only this compact RAIL map shows the way where city and state maps fail.

Quick! How do you find the best Russian borscht? Of course, not in Manhattan Midtown, but in Brooklyn's "Little Odessa" at Brighton Beach. Which train? Why the D & Q line, of course, Q's end of the line.

Quick! The cheapest way from Jacob Javits Center to LaGuardia (LGA)...take M34 bus to Broadway, N train to Astoria Blvd, M60 bus to LGA. It won't be a much faster 1-½ hrs but it will be darn sight cheaper than that $100 bill whisked out of your hand for taxi fare and still cheaper than a hotel-airport shuttle bus. Box and lug all those brochures and catalogs to the Midtown's Main PO (open til 9PM) and them mail them back home using USPS's Book (flat, cheapest) Rate. Then have fun eating and sightseeing the rest of your time off without a heavy backpack.

Quick! Want to hotel outside of pricy or dilapidated Manhattan but still accessible by subway. There aren't any hotels in Queens or Brooklyn! So take the Port Washington LIRR to the end of the line, hotels in Great Neck too. Cheaper motels in Elizabeth, NJ. Use the Path train to Newark and Jersey Transit towards Trenton to Elizabeth; much cheaper here.

Using Jersey Transit is another exercise in using your imagination. Quick! How do you get to the former AT&T R&D headquarters in Murray Hill (now a real museum piece)? Why, the Morristown Line and transfer to the Gladstone Branch. Hah! Did ja know that? Only this compact RAIL map shows the way where city and state maps fail.

Even the maps provided by NYC subway (if you can get them), NJT, and the Philly's SEPTA are not useful at all in trying to get from A to B. And the provincial city and county maps of suburban Philadelphia are a screaming rip-off. Like you were born as a homing pigeon with a built-in GIS birdbrain in your past life.

Quick! How do you get to IBM's R&D facility at Poughkeepsie and you lost your IBM interview portfolio or are coming in on the weekend holiday before your interview (Hah, no limo for you!). Of course, you take the Hudson Line. Ever try find these places on the map? Which station do you get off? What's the taxi number that serves that town? Where is a cheap local motel? Good luck!

Only this compact RAIL map shows the way where city, state, and even Yahoo and Google maps fail.

One side of the map shows the Amtrak Northeast Corridor from Portland, Maine on south to Richmond, Virginia. The other side highlights the cities, with largest space for NYC, then Boston, DC, Philly, and smallest for Baltimore. It is a heavy duty, laminated, 6-fold map, measuring 10" x 25." Small enough to whip out fast, durable enough to mark up with a crayon or water soluble white board marker.

The only thing I fault the publishers of this First edition is not having a good showing of the factory outlet centers, such as Secaucus NJ and no major Universities such as Princeton. Also there is no grid and index system.

I've always theorized that it's still possible to start out north of Boston and wind up near Richmond having travelled on nothing but metropolitan subways and commuter rail lines, filling in the occasional gaps with short hops on AMTRAK. This map will show you exactly how to do it. Beginning with the Nova Scotia ferries out of Portland and winding up at the Chesapeake Bay ferries near Newport News, Hedberg Maps' "Northeast USA Passenger Rail Travelers Map" gives you a detailed and legible depiction of virtually every subway, trolley, commuter rail, seasonal excursion, AMTRAK, and ferry line from New England through the mid-Atlantic, with inset maps of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington that provide even greater levels of information (though the New York City subway system is, by necessity, abbreviated for considerations of space). The current edition (2001) is the first, and while there have been several major route changes since then (new AMTRAK service to Maine, 9/11 subway closure/realignment at the World Trade Center), Hedberg Maps advises there are, unfortunately, no immediate plans for a second, updated edition until this "gem" of a map becomes better known and stimulates demand for a new version. Still, the 2001 edition is the best map of its kind out there (pre-folded, pocket-sized, and laminated as a boon to commuters). Any map and/or rail fan will pore over the "Northeast USA Passenger Rail Travelers Map" for many satisfying hours. This map reminds us how many alternatives remain (at least in the urban Northeast) to the tyranny of the overcrowded interstate highway and the over-stressed metropolitan airport.

This map is really great for seeing the big picture of northeast rail. It's so much easier to use this map rather than trying to piece together various maps from the rail operators. It doesn't label every single subway station in NY and Boston because there's too many to fit onto a small enough map. However, it does list all the commuter rail and Amtrak stations on the east coast from Maine-Virginia. The map isn't geared to subway riders, but commuter and day trippers who want to go anywhere in the NE by rail. It's a laminated coated map so don't worry about it getting weak at the folds. It is quite old at 2001, but I suppose there's not enough demand to warrant a new version. Not much has changed since then. Plus, it gives routes being constructed so this map will still be good for many years.