I love maps. And when I was in school, I loved procrastinating. So I made a map of a conceptual high-speed and regional rail network when I was avoiding homework:

Click on the image to see the full-size edition.

I was living in France at the time so I can’t say I wasn’t inspired by the SNCF’s sleek logo and the relative density of the Western European train networks.

Western Europe train map, 2011. Credit: Wikipedia.

Of course there are many cities on this map that would not need rail service as frequently as this map suggests, and my home state of Wisconsin has some generous (currently nonexistent) service, but it was merely a fun project to draw up. It is not to geographic scale, and it does not always reflect where existing train lines exist or what is already planned (like in California). It is just for fun – I don’t need to be reminded of these things.

Add this to the list of many others who have also designed such maps (including this one released yesterday or so).

Happy Friday!