Train Color Lines

Last week marked the 30th anniversary of the CTA adopting its color-coded rail line system. The change happened on February 21, 1993, when the agency decided that instead of using streets or names for the lines, it would use a color designation, hence the birth of the Blue Line, Red Line, Green Line, and so forth. Wickedpedia How did the T lines get their colors? The MBTA's iconic hues have stood the test of time, even through budget shortfalls, service disruptions, and the occasional Orange Line fire.

We know the city of Boston, Massachusetts uses different color distinctions for each of its MBTA subway lines, but how did they choose which colors to use? Did you know that the NYC subway lines are marked by 10 Pantone® spot colors? Even E. How did the T's different lines get their colors? It's Boston lore, but the story you know might not be true.

You might have heard about how the MBTA got its colors. The Red Line, the tale goes, was named as a tribute to Harvard Crimson at the former end of the tracks. The Blue Line, which goes.

Colors were sampled from official rapid transit diagrams* of every system in the world and charted in several ways to explore how each city has used them to color code each line or service. Rapid transit systems include subways, metros, undergrounds, railways, etc. operating frequently in urban areas.

This graph only includes major heavy rail (such as a metro or subway), light rail, commuter rail, streetcar, and bus rapid-transit lines in the United States. From Montreal, Quebec to Casper, Wyoming, there are countless other examples where transit systems use colors for nomenclature. Raritan Valley Line - Statue of Liberty from the logo of the Raritan Valley Line's predecessor, Central Railroad of New Jersey.

River Line - River Line train in deep green, the color of the Camden & Amboy Railroad, New Jersey's first railroad, and builder of the right. The CTA adopted its current, color-coded system of train lines only in 1993, and the colors riders know so well today reached their recognizable state only in 2006. 'Red Line wasn't always red?' How the CTA trains got their colors The color lines of Chicago's trains may be iconic, but they're more recent than you might think.