Neighborhood Maps To Be Designed for Los Angeles’ Metro Red Line

SANTA BARBARA, CA (30 March 2004)

Santa Barbara based CHK America, specialists in the visual communication of passenger information for the public transport industry, is to commence the second phase of its project for Los Angeles MTA, delivering Neighborhood Maps for the county’s only modern heavy-rail subway, the Metro Red Line. That announcement was made today by Frederick A. Wood, President and CEO, CHK America.

CHK America are to deliver fourteen Neighborhood Maps to MTA, which are to be situated at each station along the 17.5 mile Metro Red Line, which runs between downtown Los Angeles and North Hollywood with a branch to the Mid-Wilshire area. To be designed by CHK America’s in-house design, production and editorial team, the Neighborhood Maps are an important tool for passengers as they combine maps with local area information such as landmarks, commercial centers and connecting bus and rail service information in a passenger friendly format for easy orientation.

Los Angeles’ only subway, The Metro Red Line originally opened in January 1993 and almost immediately featured in the Hollywood blockbuster movie “Lethal Weapon 3.” The Metro Red Line, which runs entirely underground underneath Downtown Los Angeles, begins at Union Station and runs underneath the Santa Monica Mountains to the world-famous Universal studios before reaching its final destination in the NoHo arts district of North Hollywood.

“We are pleased to continue our work for MTA and provide a service to their passengers along the Metro Red Line,” said Wood. “With these new Neighborhood maps in place, passengers will be able to easily understand connecting Metro Bus services available to them from any Red Line Station and will be presented with a detailed area map should they wish to continue their journey on foot.”

“The new generation of neighborhood maps in both Red Line and our new Gold Line stations created by CHK America are much more informative and passenger-friendly than the previous approach,” said Mike Barnes, MTA project manager for neighborhood map revisions. “We’ll be working further with the firm on additional concepts such as ‘Spider Diagrams®’ at certain stations to assist riders in making connections.”

Established in September 1999, CHK America has firmly established itself as the premier provider of passenger information solutions to the public transportation industry. Clients include Santa Barbara MTD, Los Angeles County MTA, San Antonio VIA, Austin Capital Metro, Nashville MTA and the City of Pasadena. A division of United Kingdom based Cook, Hammond and Kell, CHK America was established to expand the reach of its parent company’s products across the US. CHK’s products and services have been distributed extensively across Europe for over 140 years. Other companies in the group include Cook, Hammond and Kell, FWT Studios, Oxford Cartographers, National Map Center London, National Map Center Dublin.