Tube Map changes since December 2023

[trainwizard]

I don't have a physical copy yet, the following are the changes I have found based on the online map:

• Brent Cross West opened
• Kentish Town is crossed out
• National rail icon removed at Edmonton Green
• Dagger added at Bermondsey for lift works
• Daggers added at Heathrow stations for Elizabeth line fares
• White accessibility blobs added at Finsbury Park (Thameslink), St Mary Cray (online only), Catford (online only)
• Blue accessibility blobs added at Amersham, Harrow on the Hill, Hammersmith (Piccadilly)

The cover art is named 'A Little Slice of Paradise' and "captures plants and flowers nurtured by TfL staff in gardens across the transport network" (press release). The best image I found was in this article.

[spsmiler]

eek, the flowers might be nice but do they really go well with such a moody, even brooding, dark blue background?

[rapidtransitman]

Especially in winter!

[trainwizard]

Dec 9, 2023 21:28:16 GMT rapidtransitman said:

Especially in winter!

Which reminds me - the air conditioning ❄ snowflakes ❄ are still on the map. It seems as if they are a permanent, not seasonal, addition.

[londoner]

I picked up the new map at my local station (by coincidence)...sorry for the poor quality, no scanner:



image hosting

[londoner]

There seem to be several inconsistencies with the National Rail symbols:

Missing symbols (where interchange with other regular rail services is available):
- Carshalton
- Hackbridge
- St Mary Cray
- Swanley
- Bromley South
- Crofton Park (peak services)
- Coulsdon South
- Mitcham Junction
- Loughborough Junction (peak services)
- Heathrow stations (HX services)
- Forest Hill
- Honor Oak Park
- Brockley

Symbols not needed (Thameslink only services):
- Farringdon
- Kentish Town

[xtmw]

It looks rather... Cramped?

That also leaves me wondering, is it really a 'Tube Map' now if it includes services like the Trams, Thameslink etc.

[Dstock7080]

Trams have been on the map since June 2016 and Thameslink since December 2020, the same has been said at each edition since those.

[brigham]

...and for good reason.
The map is hideously overcrowded. A tube map, or underground-only map might help, but I wonder if a 'primary routes' map for London tourists could help.
It might contain simple routes only, irrespective of 'mode'.

[greatkingrat]

Dec 10, 2023 17:52:11 GMT londoner said:

There seem to be several inconsistencies with the National Rail symbols:

Missing symbols (where interchange with other regular rail services is available):
- Carshalton
- Hackbridge
- St Mary Cray
- Swanley
- Bromley South
- Crofton Park (peak services)
- Coulsdon South
- Mitcham Junction
- Loughborough Junction (peak services)
- Heathrow stations (HX services)
- Forest Hill
- Honor Oak Park
- Brockley

Just because a station is served by other National Rail services doesn't mean it needs to be shown as an interchange. For example there is no particular reason why anyone would need to interchange at Brockley/Honor Oak Park/Forest Hill, when the stations either side (New Cross Gate and Sydenham) are already shown as interchanges. It is a bit like the subsurface lines - stations like Great Portland Street or Sloane Square aren't shown as interchanges even though you can change lines there if you want.

[d7666]

Dec 12, 2023 8:46:48 GMT brigham said:

...and for good reason.
The map is hideously overcrowded. A tube map, or underground-only map might help, but I wonder if a 'primary routes' map for London tourists could help.

How does omitting non tube routes help tourists ? THEY are the ones who DO need more travel information not less.

Would you expect a Paris tourist map to omit RER just because it is not Metro ?

Or, say, a Munich or Berlin tourist map to omit S-bahn just because they are not U-bahn ?

Etcetera.

Place yourself as a visitor to a city you not been before, then ask yourself is the map with everything or the one arbitrarily split by metro / non-metro the most helpful ?

[xtmw]

I agree - it is rather overcrowded but the question is how would you untangle it?

An unsuspecting tourist could pick up a 'primary map' and their destination wouldn't be there, confusing them

[Chris M]

Dec 12, 2023 22:45:58 GMT xtmw said:

I agree - it is rather overcrowded but the question is how would you untangle it?

The limiting factor is east-west rather than north south, and conveniently there is a whole panel that the map could expand on to. This would require moving the key and "check before you travel" panels. The former will fit in the bottom left corner now there is space for the Heathrow branch to be shown mostly horizontally rather than the present mostly vertically. The "check before you travel", if that doesn't also fit near the key or in the probably relatively empty top right corner, could be moved onto the back cover. Even on the December 2020 map (which used a larger text size for the key) there was half a page taken up by an advert for the TfL Go app (this had grown to a full page by the May 2023 map; these are the two versions I happen to have to hand).

If you change the size of the paper (e.g. adding a fifth panel) then even more options open themselves up.

[brigham]

I would be inclined to produce a 'Tourist's Map', using the basic 'central area' of the Underground, with major tourist destinations added, using information gleaned from visitor-number statistics, or what the retailers call 'footfall'.
The idea would be be to get visitors to their chosen destination with minimum effort. Do you really need to know that trains to Amersham are available from Tussauds?

[t697]

Nice to see the wheelchair access symbols for Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill made consistent with other Met stations where step-free to the (S stock) train is also provided. Only taken 18 months or more! I wonder when the muddled set of Met line car line diagrams in the trains will be sorted out.

[Dstock7080]

©TfL 2023

[theblackferret]

Would be interesting to know what percentage of visitors to London come from other parts of England, from other parts of the UK & abroad, respectively.

I'd expect most foreigners would be in fairly-Central hotels,so how much need would they have for all the other stuff on here?

Equally,thanks to Dstock7080, we can now see what the end-game will be;just get the app instead & then Tube maps will die out entirely, except on station sites, whence archaeologists will wonder at them around 2250(that's the year, not the time!) and wonder.

[Chris M]

Well as a single point of data, when my parents visit London they typically stay in Abbey Wood but last time they stayed in Rickmansworth. Not having those stations on the map would have been confusing for them. Also, destination stations need to be mentioned - if you get to a platform and see a train heading to say Chesham or Upminster and that isn't on your map, how do you know whether its going where you want it to go?
Also remember that there is an extremely long tail of tourist destinations, and even some of the major destinations for visitors to London are quite spread out - Heathrow, London City Airport, Greenwich, Wembley, White Hart Lane, Wimbledon, Brixton, Stratford, ExCeL, North Greenwich, Crystal Palace, etc.

[A60stock]

The issue is the fact that as soon as you add all of the other types of transport, the map no longer becomes fit for purposes in its present form. It is physically too small to have everything on there.

The style of how lines are shown/design of the map, which IIRC, the present modern design/format was first brought about in 1990 - the first one showing the H&C line (the styles all before this look quite different).

There are a number of other designs which are not official but would work much better, which I have seen before. Maybe its time for a change?

[t697]

The paper map is very useful when doing Chris M's quizzes, but I doubt that supports the print run much!

[d7666]

Dec 13, 2023 1:45:55 GMT Chris M said:

If you change the size of the paper (e.g. adding a fifth panel) then even more options open themselves up.

Which is by far the most sensible option _ assuming of course the change is an increase.

Methinks clinging with continued use of the same sized folder paper means it is approaching, if not already there, no longer fit for purpose.

No doubt the "must stop using paper" brigade will have their way and the opposite is more likely to happen.

There is another factor applying to tourists from overseas working against electronic phone based maps and that is international data roaming charges can be exhorbitant and many visitors while using their phones as phones and cameras etc do not surf for data of any sort; indeed may not even be able to.

[Tom]

One of the things I was taught as a design engineer producing circuit schematics was that you avoid dog-legs wherever possible. If you need to more space, take more space.

Based on the legend that the map design was based upon electrical circuit diagrams, then I would suggest the map designers took the time to re-learn those golden rules rather than trying to shoehorn everything into the available space - the treatment of the Piccadilly line's Heathrow branch and the way the Central and Elizabeth lines weave around the map to meet and separate from each other are very poor examples of trying to be clear and concise.

Personally, I think it would be much better if the 'Tube Map' reverted to being just that. Add interchange symbols for other modes, yes, and then produce separate network maps for those modes. There is, for example, a good reason why the Berlin map only shows U- and S-Bahn routes rather than the trams as well - the trams are disproportionately concentrated to the East of the City and have far more frequent stops than the heavy rail services.

[d7666]

And removing non tube elements from tubemaps also has the effect of removing alternative routes needed at time of disruption or closures.

We - in here - probably know the alternatives routes ; ordinary passengers especially visitors of any sort do not.

I'll say it again, the maps may be complex, but any attempt at simplification by removing anything quickly reduces the map usefulness inversely proportional to those who most need it.

[Chris M]

I can see arguments for removing trams and the dangleway from the map (I don't agree) but everything else is essential for route planning, especially during disruption, and helps avoid overcrowding. For example remove the DLR and how do tourists get from Greenwich or City Airport to Tottenham Court Road without using two (or more) maps? Why should someone heading from Stratford to Camden be discouraged from going direct on the Overground? Do we want all Paddington to TCR travellers to cram themselves on the tube again because it's simpler not to show the Elizabeth line on the same map as the Underground?

[etr220]

My view is that the Tube Map has lost its way: either it should be just a Tube Map - so strip out Overground, Tramlink, etc.; and arguably Elizabeth Line and Thameslink, certainly beyond their Tube connections - that can be much be less crowded, and so more legible. Or bite the bullet and make it a proper London Rail map, including all the NR suburban lines within Greater London/the Zones/Oyster Area, with an appropriate size they all fit comfortably without being squezed in. Perhaps accompanied with a Central/Tourist map, equally complete, but only going out to Zone 2 or 3(?) - and perhaps including, or with, 'key' bus routes?

[xtmw]

Which brings me back to my original point. Chris M's parents stayed in Rickmansworth, which is beyond zone 3. An unsuspecting commuter could be staying further then zone 3 and could be really confused on how they would reach the central part of London, or to reach other destination. 

[alpinejohn]

Just a personal perspective but I find the latest map is fine - but the "Tube Map" name is no longer appropriate.

It has evolved into a hybrid London public transport services map but without the buses.

I would leave the Tube Map alone and focus on getting TFL to once again realise that providing a decent bus services map is important for travellers to identify whatever bus routes link to services shown on the "Tube Map",

I hear the argumentthat everyone now uses some sort of Journey planner app - but not everyone has a smart phone, and digital mapping is only as good as its programming algorithm, and working with a typical mobile phone screen makes it hard to spot if there are alternative routes just off the screen.

PS leave the dangleway alone. It has only become almost exclusively a tourist service, because it is not treated and charged to users as other zone one Oyster journeys. In the alps similar equipment reliably and efficiently carries thousands of passengers per day and indeed requires far less manpower than operating a bus shuttle to carry similar numbers of passengers. Given the hardware costs have already been incurred it really should not be inordinately to expensive to operate.

Eventually someone at TFL will be brave enough to realise that the Dangleway could almost overnight become a hugely popular transport resource provided they drop the premium pricing approach and treat it as a trip within zone one and therefore dangleway deserves its place on the "Tube Map".

[etr220]

Dec 17, 2023 14:16:07 GMT alpinejohn said:

It has evolved into a hybrid London public transport services map but without the buses.

Or National Rail Services....Which are equally - or for the purposes of this map, more - important as buses

[alpinejohn]

I think you will find the latest map does cover many(most) National Rail services within Greater London - albeit apart from services operate by TFL like the Overground and Elizabeth Line, National Rail routes are rather inconspicuous.

Inherently the "Tube Map" still works for most station to station route finding.

But if that is all you have to hand it can be hopeless for visitors trying to work out how to get to a specific destination/address which may be a very long walk from any of the listed rail stations. That is the reason I think TFL need to relaunch the bus map especially as routes seem to change frequently and just as importantly make it available as one of more downloadable files. So rather than just one London wide bus services map it might be sensible to reinstate sectoral bus maps as well.

Basically the geographical distortion in the tube map tends to get worse the further out from the central area you go. Greenford and Reading are actually an awful long way apart!

Over time TFL have wrongly focused on cramming more and more stuff onto the "Tube Map" - which is actually a routing map, and since Elizabeth line fully opened it has massively extended the area covered by TFL services and once again there is a yawning gap which needs something (a geographically correct Map?) to put this all in context.

[miff]

I wonder what the print-run is nowadays compared to pre-internet times. With so many pressures on TfL expenditure I wonder if, rather than a design re-think, they’re looking forward for to the day they can get away with abolishing it as a free publication. They could still make the data and images available to external publishers.