Strip maps showing differing stopping patterns on mainline routes

[PTR 444]

With a general interest in more detailed mapping, I have spent some time coming up with a series of strip maps depicting different types of services on British mainline routes. The idea is that services are split into four different tiers, so that express trains can be differentiated from stoppers more easily. I am hoping to produce many more of these over the coming weeks with the eventual aim of amalgamating them into one ‘London & South East’ style map. My first prototype is of the Brighton Main Line with services split into four different tiers, shown in red, silver, turquoise and blue. Services depicted are based on those from the December 2019 timetable.

• Red is for the fastest services, generally those that were formerly part of the Intercity sector. On the BML, this would be the Gatwick Express.
• Silver is for those that would be considered 'regional express'. Basically those that run fast up to a certain point then become semi-fasts or stoppers further down the line.
• Turquoise is for the slower commuter and regional services which generally call at all stations, but still skip a handful where an alternative is available. For the BML, this consists of the Reigate, East Grinstead and Thameslink services.
• Blue is for Metro-style services. These call at all stations en-route with few exceptions.

The choice of colour scheme is inspired by the British flag, which fits perfectly with a potential GBR integrated brand should such a thing come to fruition. The addition of turquoise is also a nod to the old Network Southeast colour scheme. One quirk of the map is that all junctions point to the right, regardless of their orientation in real life. This is for simplicity so that all text can be on one side, although I may change this for later prototypes. The main thing is that this design is future-proofed for a potential rebrand of the entire network under a single GBR identity.

Hope you find this easy to understand and interesting to look at. Any feedback is strongly welcomed.

 

[hexagon789]

With a general interest in more detailed mapping, I have spent some time coming up with a series of strip maps depicting different types of services on British mainline routes. The idea is that services are split into four different tiers, so that express trains can be differentiated from stoppers more easily. I am hoping to produce many more of these over the coming weeks, but my first prototype is of the Brighton Main Line with services split into four different tiers, shown in red, silver, turquoise and blue.

Red is for the fastest services, generally those that were formerly part of the Intercity sector. On the BML, this would be the Gatwick Express.
Silver is for those that would be considered 'regional express'. Basically those that run fast up to a certain point then become semi-fasts or stoppers further down the line.
Turquoise is for the slower commuter and regional services which generally call at all stations, but still skip a handful where an alternative is available.
Blue is for Metro-style services. These call at all stations with few exceptions.

The choice of colour scheme is inspired by the British flag, which fits perfectly with a potential GBR integrated brand should such a thing come to fruition. The addition of turquoise is also a nod to the old Network Southeast colour scheme. One quirk of the map is that all junctions point to the right, regardless of their orientation in real life. This is for simplicity so that all text can be on one side, although I may change this for later prototypes. The main thing is that this design is future-proofed for a potential rebrand of the entire network under a single GBR identity.

Hope you find this easy to understand and interesting to look at. Any feedback is strongly welcomed.

I read your post before looking at your diagram and purely from your post I initially took your proposal to be much more complicated than it is, that is I somewhat misconstrued what your diagram was going to show.

Having now actually looked at the diagram as well I find it very user friendly and much simpler than it first sounded.

I don't know if it was an inspiration but I reminds me strongly of the colour-coded route maps in the back of Virgin timetables which showed the usual stopping patterns for each route, please take that as a compliment not a criticism!

I appreciate the reasoning for having all text on one side but I think I'd like to see a version with junctions 'sided before deciding conclusively whether I feel that's the better approach.

Hopefully I've said something useful, I've tried to keep it objective.

 

[etr221]

Having had a look - my first comment is that having branches off on the 'wrong' side is disconcerting. But having said that, I like the concept and general design, but I'm not sure quite what its purpose is...

Essentially it doesn't really fit the railway (and services) we do have - certainly on the Brighton Main Line. Gatwick Expresses apart, how many of the services stay on the BML? It's really just one strand of a complex network. with virtually all (or at least most) trains branching off at one end or otherway (for London Bridge and Thameslink at one end, Coastway, etc. at the other). Nor do the categories you define really match what is - especially for what you classify as 'Regional' and 'Commuter' - a lot of trains essentially change from one to another en route. And the stopping patterns are far too complex to be simply shown...

Whether it might work better for other, simpler routes I'm not sure - I think the bottom line is that few if any routes have both the simple 'everything is on the one line without branches' network and the straightforward heirarchy of train types, with a couple/a few/many/all stops, to make it really work

 

[hexagon789]

And the stopping patterns are far too complex to be simply shown...

It's still much, much more user friendly than one BR-era diagram I've seen!

 

[XAM2175]

The choice of colour scheme is inspired by the British flag, which fits perfectly with a potential GBR integrated brand should such a thing come to fruition. The addition of turquoise is also a nod to the old Network Southeast colour scheme.

I would suggest that you choose colours based on their accessibility to people with less-than-perfect colour vision, rather than their political suitability

There are a number of guidelines and tools available to assist with this, such as:

https://color.adobe.com/create/color-accessibility

 

[PTR 444]

Thank you for the feedback so far. I have now produced my second draft which is of the South Eastern Main Line between Charing Cross and Dover. Junctions are now oriented to the 'correct' side which should make things a lot less confusing. As for colours, these are still the same at the moment but I am hoping to make these more accessible in the next edition. I have a colour blindness app which can help me with this.

Regarding the colours 'fitting the railway', I think there is always going to have to be some sort of compromise as to how much transparency there is in terms of stopping patterns shown. I still believe my four tiered system is better in terms of segregating 'fast' from 'slow' services than the existing maps which only differentiate by operator, and showing every single stopping pattern as a separate line and colour would complicate things too much, particularly when these strip maps are amalgamated into a single schematic map of the UK.

Regarding the point on my 'regional' services not really being regional in nature, I think this is just a best fit so that the brand can fit around the whole of the UK, rather than being confined to anywhere not in the South East. I think there is still some over-obsession with the BR sectorisation brands and people wanting to go back to the days of IC, NSE and RR exactly how they looked in the '90s, but having one colour for all 'Network' services wouldn't really have worked for the purpose of my diagram which is to separate the fasts from the semi-fasts and stoppers. This is also the reason why I have classed HS1 services as Intercity.

A way of getting around the 'different branches' issue could be to show separate lines of the same colour, as I have done with the Bromley North branch at Grove Park. It makes it clear that no trains on the branch continue through to the mainline, although the separation from the other Metro line makes it look a bit odd as the interchange circles do not join (due to Regional and Commuter lines being in the way).

 

[YorksLad12]

As a fellow maps and line diagrams 'enthusiast' (side note: I was responsible for causing the tube-style knock-offs we used in West Yorkshire on the timetable posters to happen) I like what you've done here - but I preferred the first version over the second. I think all of your Londons should be at one end (in this case, at the top) so that "to London" is obvious, even if the route / stopping patterns differ.

 

[PTR 444]

As a fellow maps and line diagrams 'enthusiast' (side note: I was responsible for causing the tube-style knock-offs we used in West Yorkshire on the timetable posters to happen) I like what you've done here - but I preferred the first version over the second. I think all of your Londons should be at one end (in this case, at the top) so that "to London" is obvious, even if the route / stopping patterns differ.

Not quite sure I understand what you mean - all London stations are near the top of my diagram. Unless you mean only show services from one London terminal on each map (so no Cannon Street or HS1 services on the SEML map etc).

 

[YorksLad12]

Not quite sure I understand what you mean - all London stations are near the top of my diagram. Unless you mean only show services from one London terminal on each map (so no Cannon Street or HS1 services on the SEML map etc).

Sorry - what I mean is, you've got all of the London stations at the top apart from the InterCity route, which has St P halfway down where the line comes off at Ashford. I preferred the Brighton version, which gives all of the routes equal weight and shows any stops along the way. In the second version I don't know if Ashford to St P has any stops. Does that make sense?

 

[etr221]

Sorry - what I mean is, you've got all of the London stations at the top apart from the InterCity route, which has St P halfway down where the line comes off at Ashford. I preferred the Brighton version, which gives all of the routes equal weight and shows any stops along the way. In the second version I don't know if Ashford to St P has any stops. Does that make sense?

I don't think there is any real difference between the two in this respect: both show a 'main line' and indicate branches off it at the relevant point: without differentiating between minor branch lines and alternative main lines. And so the 'Intercity' (High Speed) branch to St Pancras is shown as it is - a feature, not a bug.

Which is a result of the diagams showing an individual line, that forms part of a network, and whose services to a large extent off or on to other lines of the network, but only giving a minor indication of this. The alternative would be design the diagrams to show the network - or a substantial chunk of it - which might be a better idea.

But, as I said before, I'm not sure what the purpose of these is, or who they are intended for.

 

[mister-sparky]

Thank you for the feedback so far. I have now produced my second draft which is of the South Eastern Main Line between Charing Cross and Dover. Junctions are now oriented to the 'correct' side which should make things a lot less confusing. As for colours, these are still the same at the moment but I am hoping to make these more accessible in the next edition. I have a colour blindness app which can help me with this.

Regarding the colours 'fitting the railway', I think there is always going to have to be some sort of compromise as to how much transparency there is in terms of stopping patterns shown. I still believe my four tiered system is better in terms of segregating 'fast' from 'slow' services than the existing maps which only differentiate by operator, and showing every single stopping pattern as a separate line and colour would complicate things too much, particularly when these strip maps are amalgamated into a single schematic map of the UK.

Regarding the point on my 'regional' services not really being regional in nature, I think this is just a best fit so that the brand can fit around the whole of the UK, rather than being confined to anywhere not in the South East. I think there is still some over-obsession with the BR sectorisation brands and people wanting to go back to the days of IC, NSE and RR exactly how they looked in the '90s, but having one colour for all 'Network' services wouldn't really have worked for the purpose of my diagram which is to separate the fasts from the semi-fasts and stoppers. This is also the reason why I have classed HS1 services as Intercity.

A way of getting around the 'different branches' issue could be to show separate lines of the same colour, as I have done with the Bromley North branch at Grove Park. It makes it clear that no trains on the branch continue through to the mainline, although the separation from the other Metro line makes it look a bit odd as the interchange circles do not join (due to Regional and Commuter lines being in the way).

all routes call at Waterloo east, not just the “commuter”

 

[PTR 444]

Taking on board the above feedback, I think it probably makes more sense to produce a strip map for a cluster of routes from a single point, rather than a separate one for each line. These would give the maps more of a purpose as they would be more useful in determining which routes stop where, rather than just those on an arbitrary mainline. An additional feature I have added is the use of hollow circles in the line colour to represent the fact that not all trains on the route call there. With this next map I have produced of the SWML with London Waterloo being the datum point, each route is split into different lines so you have:

Weymouth (regional)
West of England (regional)
Portsmouth direct (regional)
Portsmouth semi-fast (commuter)
Eastleigh semi-fast (commuter)
Basingstoke stopper (commuter)
Alton (commuter)

As each line roughly represents 2tph, you could use a separate colour for each, although this would remove the regional/commuter distinction. Whether this matters in the greater scheme of things though depends on whether GBR will distinguish services in this way.

The SWML metro and Windsor Line services would be shown on separate diagrams for more clarity.