September 2021 Tube map

All the changes between May and September digital tube maps:
Battersea extension added.
In consequence:
*Major change to Kennington
*Vauxhall moves south east significantly, Vauxhall Pier moves east to remain directly north of the station
*Oval moves north east a short way, presumably to remain equidistant to Kennington and Stockwell
*Zone 1/2 boundary changes. As a consequence the Imperial Wharf label moves from 1 to 2 lines and the "2" zone label moves from north of Clapham Junction to Wandsworth Road to west of Clapham Junction to Imperial Wharf

Step-free changes:
Moorgate SSR becomes step-free to train, in consequence the station moves from a single blob to two blobs - the SSR blob moves west and slightly north onto the diagonal section of line and is joined by a very long connector to the northern line blob which has moved north.
Ealing Broadway gains step-free access: To platform for TfL Rail and Central line, to train for the District line. This means the District and Central lines no longer share a blob, the District line effectively moving south slightly.
Wimbledon Park, West Drayton, Hayes and Harlington, Southall, Ickenham and Whitechapel all become step-free to platform
Tottenham Hale becomes step-free to train.

Other minor changes:
The text "332039-A01" is added right of the copyright date beneath the key
Southfields label moves left very slightly.
Belgrave Walk and Mitcham tram stops move east slightly
Osterley and Boston Manor move north east slightly. Osterley has not yet gained a step-free blob.
Old Street moves south slightly.

Tottenham Hale - according to continual announcements for the past couple of weeks - does not have step free access at the moment. Don't know why not or when it will be introduced.

A friend of mine has just noticed King's Cross St Pancras has gained an ampersand.

was actually on the December 2020 map also.

I can't imagine how difficult someone new to London would find it to try and plan a journey using that monstrosity.

Out of interest, I know both Dstock7080 and Chris M often do breakdowns of what's changed when a new map comes out. Do you each have a "clever" way of doing the comparison (digitally overlaying the two maps as if they were printed on transparencies?), or is it "just" a case of hard effort and going over everything with a meticulous eye?

Either way, I do appreciate the change summaries.

It shows a total lack of understanding of what the end user requires.

It needs to be simple and easy to read.

The zone tints are far too heavy.

quex for the digital maps I add the old and new maps as layers in gimp and set it to show the difference between the layers. I then zoom in to the area where a difference is and flip back and forwards between the two until I work out what has changed if it isn't obvious from the difference. For example when a station moves slightly it can be clear from the diff there has been movement e.g. up/down but not whether it is higher or lower on the new map.

Click to see the difference view between the May and September 2021 maps

The yellow mark in the lower right in example of a spurious change a ~1 pixel change in the position of the letter "m" in the label for Beckenham Road tram stop. I presume this is an artefact of the process of importing the PDF to gimp.

I agree - this map is just a monstrosity. We surely have reached the point now where the pocket tube map has outlived its usefulness in its current form? Beck created the simplistic design to make life easier for the user - I doubt anyone can honestly say that the current incarnation is easy to use.

September 2021 poster version:

So what then for the tourists wanting to get to a meal in Shoreditch, visit Maritime Greenwich and check out Crystal Palace (all examples friends of mine from outside London have asked me the best way to get to)? The LU-only map, and indeed the fare zones, for historical and geological reasons are heavily north and west biased.

I believe so - it shows the suburban rail out of Waterloo, Victoria, Canon Street and Charring Cross, as well as connections in the north.  LU only would to my mind include the overground and DLR - the trams maybe?  What would be excluded?  I think it's a difficult judgement - excluding the DLR makes the east of London look inaccessible, for example.

Let them eat cake.

Exactly. This was the sensible way of doing it before the politicians stuck their nose in.

Perhaps a better alternative would be to take out London Overground and tramlink only from the current map, whilst creating a separate map to have both of these? In the same new map, there can be useful truncated tube lines based on passenger usage data on the interchanges. (only the most used interchanges will be shown)