December 2018 Tube Map

The cover for the new 'normal' Tube map was revealed back in November; it's a commission by British radical feminist artist Linder, part of a series of work called The Bower of Bliss. The focal point of the piece is an 85m long billboard wrap of Southwark station featuring imagery of women with connections to both the local area and the Tube network.

The Tube map cover features British actress and performer Lauren Fitzpatrick in an evocative and provocative scene created by Linder focussed around returning a voice to women.



Some may have noticed a familiar face within the piece. I was incredibly honoured to be asked to be one of the women who feature in the imagery, which is on display at Southwark until October next year. The billboards will also be evolving and changing - some subtle, some not - during that time to reflect both local and global socio-political developments.

It's a really, really cool thing.

with great thanks to beingcharley:

How misleading, the map would seem to suggest that the walk between Bank (Central Line) and Monument is shorter than the walk between the Shadwells or the Shepherds Bushs or Forest Gate & Wanstead Park which I'm pretty confident isn't the case.

I think the artwork on the front of the map is hideous. Its just very jarring to me.

Some questions/ thoughts:
Why is the met line further away from the Jubliee line between Wembley park and Baker St? EDIT: It appears they've done this to link several stations together. 

If you are going to add walking between stations, why is Sundbury Hill Harrow station not mentioned on the map? Its a one minute walk to Sudbury Hill.
Why is the central line "straight" through the core again?
Why are the TFL fares not listed clearly for the Heathrow services?
Is Hanger Lane to Park Royal greater than a ten minute walk? Its probably near the cut off I guess. Same with North Ealing and West Acton.
Why are Queensway and Bayswater not linked?

-Is West Ruislip further from the Picc/Met lines and closer to Ruislip?
-Epping branch goes of at an angle now. 
-Cockfosters and Enfield Town branches are now at approx. the same height. They are closer to the edge of the map. 
-Chingford and Buckhurst Hill are no longer at the same height. 
-The British rail symbol at East Croydon now appears after the station name, rather than before. 
-The British rail symbol at West Ealing now appears below the station name. 
-Hayes and Harlington station now appears below the kink in the line (i.e.\ closer to heathrow block).
-Several stations on the Piccadilly Heathrow branch have been re-positioned. 
-A small gap has been added between the overground/district lines on the Richmond branch. 
-The overground branches from Richmond and Clapham into Willesden Jn have been modified. 
-I think the distance between the central line West Ruislip branch and the Uxbridge branch has been modified slightly. 
-I think the Wimbledon branch has been moved slightly further downwards. -
-West Brompton is further away from Ealing court. 
-The river, between Gunnersbury and Putney, might angle further down before changing back to the horizontal. 
-The overground between Brixton and Clapham Jn has been modified. 
-The kink in the tramline has been moved left of the Northern Line around Morden to assist a walkway link. 
-Overground around New Cross station has been modified to assist the walkway link. 
-Woolwich Arsenal is significantly closer to the tramline. A pier symbol has been added to the station. 
-The airport symbol has been moved before the station name at London City Airport. 
-The Enfield and Chingford overground branches no longer kink at the same vertical location. The chingford branch is angled further north-eastwards.
-Kentish Town stations, South Harrow, Sudbury Town are all written on an extra line respectively. (There are probably others.)
-High St. Kensington is now only written on one line. 
-The kink in the West Ruislip branch is now between Perivale and Greenford rather than Greenford and Northolt. 
-Pier symbol for Embankment has moved underneath the station name. 
-Charing Cross station name has been repositioned to the right of the northern line. 
-Victoria and Sloane sq have switched locations relative to the district/ circle lines. 
-Key symbols legend is now placed on the back of the map. 

"Is West Ruislip further from the Picc/Met lines and closer to Ruislip?"

I'd say it's quicker to walk to Ickenham than it is to Ruislip from West Ruislip... but that may just be because I do that more!

Say what you will about art, it's probably one of the most subjective cultural mediums we have in society so the fact this latest design will get people talking by catching their attention can't be a negative.

Sudbury Hill Harrow isn't on a line shown on the pocket Tube map hence no dotted walking line. There are several other stations exclusively on the National Rail network that are under a 10 min walk from a Tube/Overground/TfL Rail station but likewise don't get mention for the same reason.

We discussed the form of the Central over the maps kindly provided by beingcharley at out meet up today, we can only assume that the Central line was allowed to revert to close to its former form as there is no need thread the Elizabeth line through the map for another year so other niggles can be accommodated in the interim although stations around Euston, Kings X, Farringdon, Barbican, Moorgate and Liverpool St continue to shift.

For Heathrow, given the precarious state of the Piccadilly line at the moment, I don't think the powers want to dissuade anyone from using TfL Rail even though I agree it is grossly disingenuous to suggest normal zone fares.

OSI allows 25 mins to change between Park Royal and Hanger Ln (and vice versa) which as you say is above the threshold but so is the change between the two Finchley Roads (20 mins) which makes me think that perhaps the time allocation of a 10 min walk was taken from a sample set of journeys. As far as I know, West Ealing to North Acton is not an OSI.

Ickenham to/from West Ruislip is definitely closer than going to Ruislip however the single longest OSI by distance means that most would probably struggle to that in under 10 min. I think all of the rest of your observations are spacial ones. One that Dstock7080 picked up was South Hampstead which now appears on the right hand side of the Jubilee and Metropolitan lines which is of course the mirror of reality as South Hampstead is located to the East of the tunnels that take the WCML and the Watford DC under the Chiltern Mainline aswell as the Met and over the Jubilee.
 

beingcharley has given us some background to the cover art:



As goldenarrow has said, art is subjective. If part of the intent of the artist is to be "provocative" and you are 'jarred' by it then the artist has (perhaps at least partially) achieved one of their objectives.

Given the subjective nature of art perhaps we should stick to discussing the rest of the map rather than commenting on our appreciation (or otherwise) of the cover art?

I guess an interesting question would be "Is the cover of the Tube Map an appropriate place for art?", but if members wish to discuss that a fresh thread would probably be best.

I too agree on some of the comments made regarding the cover. In most cases, the map cover has always been linked with the Underground theme and does this by replicating line colours, branding colours or corporate designs.

The digital version that is still available as pdf has not been updated and it's interesting to see how the OSIs have been neatly distinguished between the non OSIs in contrast to before. I see that a lot of people have complained about missing OSIs or OSIs that they feel should be shown. I'm sure that the design team have taken into consideration the various OSIs we have at present and displayed the most relevant ones. South Tottenham - Seven Sisters, Camden Road- Camden Town and Euston - Euston Square are finally shown. 

This is the first time I have looked at a tube map in a while. Wow, there is a lot of overground now up in that top right corner. Also, how long have the trams been on the map?

Looking at the Digital tube map archive, the Overground lines out of Liverpool Street were added to the map in May 2015, trams have been there since June 2016.

TfL finally took note of the OSI link style that we talked about in May, but the Finchley Road to Frognal connector is a bit of a stretch when West Hampstead is a lot closer to each other, with no accessibility disadvantage.

Source: www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2018/12/08/london-underground-releases-a-new-tube-map/

Possibly because Metropolitan line doesn't stop at West Hampstead.

I wonder if the map Ianvisits shows is the digital version? This is not yet live on the TfL website (iirc it took nearly a week in May for this to happen) so I can't check.

Is there any reason why the Special fares apply is missing from Watford Jct and Shenfield?