The three subway companies also published their own maps, showing their own routes. In fact, even in 1939, the year before the unification of the IRT, BMT, and Independent Subway System (IND) into one entity, maps by private businesses were still being printed showing only the routes of one company. However, IRT maps did not show Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) routes conversely, BMT maps did not show IRT routes, even after the Dual Contracts between the IRT and BMT. Original maps for the privately opened Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), which opened in 1904, showed subway routes as well as elevated routes. Early maps Ī map for the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), created in 1924. The Live Subway Map combines elements from the Massimo Vignelli’s diagram and the design by Hertz, and connects to a live database for real-time service updates. The MTA released an interactive version of the map for digital devices in 2020, designed and built by Work & Co. The 1979 design was created by the MTA Subway Map Committee, chaired by John Tauranac, which outsourced the graphic design of the map to Michael Hertz Associates.

The official map has evolved gradually under the control of the Marketing and Corporate Communications Department of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The current iteration of the New York City Subway map dates from a design first published in 1979. Since then, the official map has undergone several complete revisions, with intervening periods of comparative stability. Because the subway was originally built by three separate companies, an official map for all subway lines was not created until 1940, when the three companies were consolidated under a single operator. Many transit maps for the New York City Subway have been designed since the subway's inception in 1904. 2013 edition of the official Hertz-style subway map note that this may not reflect temporary changes in service.

Brooklyn subway map