September 2009 tube map

I'd like to think Beck is p*ssing himself with laughter at this whole episode.

The poster version, which differs in some ways from the pocket version:

www.flickr.com/photos/24772733@N05/3926392999/

Maybe they thought it was so fail after reading this thread (I've heard the bosses in TfL read this forum) that they would re-make it before uploading it to The Great Internet.

Not going to be remade until December though is it?

Nope

You're all probably going to think me a heathen and deserving of being thrown into the lake of fire and various nether hells for saying this; but I actually quite like this map!

I think Paddington is now prepared for the T-Cup service

From comments over various websites I have read I am astonished to see that people thought that the diagrams we've had in very recent years were actually good designs.

I think it's sad that the kneejerk reaction from the press, and Boris, is likely to case a complete U-turn on this. I thought for once common sense had prevailed. All the newspaper reports fail to mention that zones did not appear on maps previous to c.2002 and was a recent development. No-one before then complained that zones weren't on the map. And just how many people actually use gridlines? I don't know a single person who does.

What I don't understand is this; how come Boris can be in charge of the Tube Map all of a sudden? Isn't this really just political meddling? After all, if every change to the Tube Map is under Boris's control, doesn't this mean that it should have been left in his 'to sign off' tray and not actioned until he returned from New York? I suspect not, because it's not supposed to be Boris's (or any Mayor's) call to directly dabble in TfL marketing affairs - I assumed (as I'm sure TfL did, quite rightly) that the MD of TfL Marketing & Communications was in charge of TfL Marketing & Communications. If that is indeed the case, Boris should simply be in a position to apply pressure but not bark an immediate 'undo this now' edict. Perhaps it is this sort of meddling that the Met Police were worried of receiving from City Hall.

Pocket version:
cover: tinyurl.com/nud2sf
map: tinyurl.com/l558nh

Notice differences to Poster at:
Uxbridge-Rayners Lane
Epping
Woolwich Arsenal

Exactly what I had in mind (several posts above) - Hopefully something broadly similar will appear in December.

benedict.fotopic.net/p61041791.html

Started fiddling with the poster version. The only great difference atm is the straightened GobLin; so obvious an idea its bizzare how it wasn't actually done for this edition. Deffinitely a work in progress, as the river demonstrates!

Yeah. I'm either thinking of straightening out the Jub and lengthening out the ELR and DLR or putting the W&C on a seperate blob.

One change which is long overdue is representing the Wimbleware as a separate route. Originally the map showed who owned which line, so (for example) the Circle was not shown as a separate line, but ran over parts of the District and Met. Gradually the various services operated by the former Metropolitan Railway have been split off and given separate identities (Circle, Northern City, ELL, H&C, and "Main"), but the District colour still covers two quite distinct (albeit overlapping) routes.
Yes, Parsons Green depot serves both routes: so what, Hammersmith serves two lines
Yes, south of Earls Court they share tracks: there are plenty of other examples, some of them (Aldgate East to Barking, for example) being longer. Two show two colours to Wimbledon would hardly "clutter up" the map - on the contrary, from the aesthetic point of view, a bit more bulk in the "empty quarter" might actually improve the balance.

Historically, the route north of HSK was not part of the MDR but the Met, so there's no justification for making it green.

Yes, it uses stock common with other lines: but not with the District! It would be more logical to have it (and the Circle) coloured pink! Show them as one line, the T-cup plus branches to Barking and Wimbledon: Having only one colour at ERd would make it much less cluttered and easier to show which is the through route and which the terminators.

Now that both types of stock on the Wimbledon line look so alike to the average "normal" (the half-red fronts of the pre-refurbished D-stock having readily distinguished them from C-stock both before and after the latter was refurbished) it is harder for regular users to tell them apart at a glance.

A better name than "Wimbleware" would be needed though.

If you have two separate blobs for Paddington you either need two labels for it or one label positioned between both, the Bakerloo/SSR one looks more like another Edgware Road station on that map.