Perfect thread for one of my favourite blog ran by a graphics designer with interest in transit maps
For example:
For example:
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Worst network diagram?
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pdeaves
Established Member
I agree. If you know nothing of the area, could you use it to plan a journey from point A to point B? If the answer is 'yes', it's done its job. Then you get into stuff about how easy that planning is (zig-zag lines vs smooth ones, for example).
Comments about place X being too close to place Y are flawed. Maybe that's 'correct' and other parts are incorrect! The point of a schematic is to show what connects with what.
nlogax
Established Member
Most beautiful metro map I've ever seen. May have to try using it when I go back to Tokyo in a couple of months.
DelW
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As per the legend, it only shows routes that interchange directly with XC services. None of Kent's railways have services that reach an XC-served station. That might or might not be the best option, but it's correct for its stated parameters. For the same reason, the Far North, Kyle of Lochalsh, and Cumbrian Coast lines are omitted.
One incorrect omission, though, is Hereford - Shrewsbury - Chester, served by trains which connect to XC at Newport, Cardiff and Crewe.
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Good lord, was that made in Word 97?Perfect thread for one of my favourite blog ran by a graphics designer with interest in transit maps
For example:
Where is it claiming to be a geographically accurate map?
And the Leeds to Bradford line has no station in Bradford....hmmm maybe the mapmaker is on to something after all, given the craze for a Bradford through-station...
In reality Edinburgh is further west than both Manchester and Bristol ... Not sure I have seen many (any?) network maps that accurately represent this
This official XC map does: https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.u...ustrated_route_map_q4_2023_a4_-1-page-001.jpg
This other official XC one also: https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/sites/default/files/basic_page_docs/service_type_route_map.pdf
I mean I don't think these maps need to be millimetre perfect, but they ought to roughly represent the geography. Aberdeen being on the left side of a XC route map makes as much sense as having London at the top of a Lumo map.
357
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MoominAndChips
Member
They're definitely on something!
TfL do sometimes add multiple 'connecting station' icons per stations, e.g. Paddington (https://subway.umka.org/stations/london/paddington.gif), but I don't think they use the station name more than once!
TransPennineExpress's diagrams/maps have long been poor.
Their diagrams try too much to hold onto the geography of Northern England and Southern Scotland, and crucially, they completely butcher Manchester and its use as a connecting hub. The diagram needs a shading I think with 'Manchester City Centre', covering Victoria, Piccadilly and Oxford Road, and some indication of the connection between Piccadilly and Victoria shown: without this, it fails to illustrate how TPE can connect you across the north. The diagram also struggles with the different number of stations on the east and west, making the Northumberland and Yorkshire stations very squeezed and hard to read. The whole thing needs shifting to the left, making the Cleethorpes line straighter or even bending down, opening up more space for the stations up the east. I don't know why there's so much space to the left of Oxford Road as well.
Their geographical maps meanwhile suffer from a surfeit of white space in the middle. It is less of a problem as a pdf, but the on-train posters look faintly ridiculous and are basically unusable. I know that's the reality of the Pennines and Southern Uplands, but if they're going to try and make a geographically accurate map, I think something to fill that space - ie, showing in a grey colour perhaps the connecting lines - would help. I'm sure a skilled cartographer could do something clever with boxes, maybe cutting-off the north-western corner beyond Carlisle and Edinburgh and putting that as a box in the middle of the map.
To their credit, they have some new in-train maps as shown on the project mapping website, which correct many of these problems - hopefully this eventually replaces the old diagrams.
Their diagrams try too much to hold onto the geography of Northern England and Southern Scotland, and crucially, they completely butcher Manchester and its use as a connecting hub. The diagram needs a shading I think with 'Manchester City Centre', covering Victoria, Piccadilly and Oxford Road, and some indication of the connection between Piccadilly and Victoria shown: without this, it fails to illustrate how TPE can connect you across the north. The diagram also struggles with the different number of stations on the east and west, making the Northumberland and Yorkshire stations very squeezed and hard to read. The whole thing needs shifting to the left, making the Cleethorpes line straighter or even bending down, opening up more space for the stations up the east. I don't know why there's so much space to the left of Oxford Road as well.
Their geographical maps meanwhile suffer from a surfeit of white space in the middle. It is less of a problem as a pdf, but the on-train posters look faintly ridiculous and are basically unusable. I know that's the reality of the Pennines and Southern Uplands, but if they're going to try and make a geographically accurate map, I think something to fill that space - ie, showing in a grey colour perhaps the connecting lines - would help. I'm sure a skilled cartographer could do something clever with boxes, maybe cutting-off the north-western corner beyond Carlisle and Edinburgh and putting that as a box in the middle of the map.
To their credit, they have some new in-train maps as shown on the project mapping website, which correct many of these problems - hopefully this eventually replaces the old diagrams.
Howardh
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On the first one, I kinda wonder about what that periscope is trying to see!!
I do like the second one, geographically accurate and easy to read, wonder if Northern has ever produced such a map or would the sheer number of lines make it impossible to decypher?
Does anyone know why Insch station is crossed out?
Royston Vasey
Established Member
Good spot, no idea. You'd think that clicking the station would give you information about it, especially as a tantalising finger cursor appears when you hover over any station. But nothing happens!
Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
Metrolink's map really grinds my gears. The East Didsbury branch runs to the south of the Manchester Airport branch but, on the Metrolink map, it is shown as running to the north.
I know why they've done it and it does make the diagram neater, but still.
I know why they've done it and it does make the diagram neater, but still.
Honorary mention to the infamous TRU Map...
2 Manchester Airports, 3 Warringtons surrounding Chester, 2 Huddersfields, Hull having an identity crisis, York having an out-of-body experience and Manchester Piccadilly having moved to Chesterfield all take some beating.
That map would at least explain why there are so many different fares between Manchester & Warrington at most times of the day....
DelW
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The three Underground stations at Paddington are arguably separate stations, although Paddington main line sits more or less alongside all of them. Edgware Road appears twice and is named twice on your excerpt, without a connection being shown, which reflects that they are separate stations on opposite sides of the Marylebone flyover.
That second map must be quite old, it still shows Guildford services which never returned after Covid (there'd only been one each way per day before).
Wait, why does Haltwhistle have an XC blob instead of a "connecting services" blob?
pr1
Member
I wonder how they're going to deal with future extensions because they could end up walking down the TfL cul-de-sac. Take the Stockport extension, with maybe two or three intermediate stations, that could a squeeze.
Interestingly both maps wrongfully suggest they don't provide direct services between Crewe and Stoke (which is the case for Mancs-Bournemouth trains)
ruaival
Member
My grandfather would be pleased ... station master there late 60s / early 70s.
SephenWorceste
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This TFL map https://content.tfl.gov.uk/large-print-tube-map.pdf just seems to do too much. Underground, overground and zones. I will not mention the distance between Covent Garden and Leicester Square. I suppose this is just the London equivalent of a tourist tax.
Omnidekkalover
Member
Being a little bit pedantic towards XCs network map, but why does it mark Heysham Port as a principal station over Morecambe and it also makes it look like Blackpool Central never shut.
Why did they change some of the angles of the lines (Tram for instance) if it's just meant to be a bigger font map? Harry Beck would cry at whatever is going on at Barking
It does seem like a lot of information.
But, given that it's trying to communicate all of this information, I think it does a pretty good job overall.
I agree that they are different and so, for example, part of the country with more stations may be given more space on s diagram. However, for a route diagram to work on a psychological level for ready understanding , a visual relationship at least to which part of the country a given station is geographically located is very helpful.
My favourite thing about this map is that Hull is both north and south of York; and that York is both north and south of Hull.
Also that you can make a journey from Warrington to Warrington via Warrington.
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