A smooth, interactive transit map for developers

We’re excited to launch Transport on our Vector Styles API. You can now build interactive, transport-focused maps with fluid zooming, panning, and rotation.

Whether you’re creating a transit app, logistics dashboard, or urban planning tool, Transport vector allows you to show complex transit networks at a glance.

See the preview of our Transport vector style

Features of Transport on our Vector Styles API

This new version includes all the functionality you expect from our Transport map style, plus the power of client-side rendering:

  • Interactive maps: tilt, pan, and zoom smoothly
  • High performance: without loss of detail at lower zoom levels

Detail and performance

We’ve worked (very) hard to ensure Transport vector is as detailed and user-friendly as our existing raster map tiles version.

During the conversion of Transport to a vector style, we tackled problems such as:

  • Overlapping railway line dashes that were showing as white blobs
  • Labels fighting for space with icons
  • Patterns looking pixelated when you zoom
  • 1-pixel polygon outlines that distorted detail at low zooms

We’ve fixed all these issues, and many others. Feedback is always welcome if you spot anything else!

Who is Transport on our Vector Styles API for?

The Transport vector style is ideal for:

  • Transit, travel, and route-planning apps
  • Logistics and delivery dashboards
  • Urban planning tools
  • Educational or research applications

If your app needs to show transit networks clearly and interactively, our client-side Transport style is the easiest way to get it done.

Getting started with Transport Vector

The Vector Styles API itself provides a MapLibre Style Specification JSON endpoint for each map, along with the supporting endpoints for fonts and icons.

You’ll only need the stylesheet endpoint and the rest will be loaded automatically.

We have a tutorial on using MapLibre with our Vector Styles API. MapLibre is a popular map rendering library, which uses client-side rendering based on vector tiles.

You can also use MapLibre with our Map Tiles API.

The story behind Transport

Transport has always been a “pathfinder” style for Thunderforest. It was the first style we built using CartoCSS, and the first style powered by our Vector Sources API.

Over the years, it has evolved to include unusual transport types like chairlifts and funiculars, and to solve complex cartography challenges like overlapping bus routes and large transit interchanges.

The launch of Transport on our Vector Styles API is the next step in this evolution — giving you full access to our specialised transit map in a way that’s fast, flexible, and interactive.