Is Tube map getting worse?

Jubilee Line Extention (Green Park - Stratford)

I cannot post an actual image here due to copyright restrictions. However, you may see the latest change in the design by looking at the map as it still appears in other languages. For example, French.

ah ok
i see now the changes at waterloo
well, maybe they think this isn't useful to show the connctions...after all, it's the same station...
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and i agree with alantan...
(and im very lucky i speak french )

I agree that the map is getting worse. Partly because the network is now so complicated, but there are so many changes of direction in some lines that seem unnecessary.

For example the DLR:
Why have a kink between Poplar and West India Quay?
After Island Gardens why not continue straight down to lewisham?
Why does the line to Woolwich Arsenal have a bend both sides of City Airport? And three 45 degree turns between King George V and the next stop, Woolwich Arsenal?!
Why the turn at the end of the Beckton line?

This is not exactly a crowded corner of the map either!

(EDIT: typo)

With things like Beckton and Lewisham the only idea I have is that if these were straight the map would get bigger = smaller map on same size paper. Otherwise I'm stuck, maybe TfL want us to use our brains a bit more when using the map? ;D

The final plan for Woolwich Arsenal is indeed a 'U' shape (or thereabouts) so the map is probably a nod to the geography of the intended route.

I may get shot down in flames for saying this, but I think the later Beck maps weren't that good. The elimination of as many diagonals as possible seems to me a strange objective, but in later years Beck did just that and the lines didn't flow nearly as well.

Personally, I doubt that those who pressed the designers to change the layout at Waterloo did so to indicate the long walk, as this isn't the case across the whole Tube map.



I think you may have meant to indicate the distance to the Central line and the cross-platform interchange between the Victoria and Bakerloo lines. Something like this maybe?

Agree with various bits of previous posts ....

My principle objection is to those horrendous wheelchair symbols muddling up with interchange symbols. Also on car line diagrams. They should indeed be replaced by a small wheelchair symbol in the same vein as the far more important NR connection symbols.

Whilst i can see why the Olympia-High Street service has been shown as if it doesn't connect with the main ...this now fails to acknowledge the reasonable number of trains that run from Ealing or Richmond to High Street. I accept the one scheduled Olympia - Upminster isn't worth reflecting.

In fact all the "restricted service" hatched line markings have gone ...when did that happen !!!

Yep that kink in the Jubilee is very poor too .... all in all a design classic is being turned into a design horror !

if the map is trying to reflect geographic nature a bit more, perhaps it ought to get the fast mets shown, like on the line diagram.

also, if kennington charing + line is shown as dashed, why aren't things like the old rendition of Chalfont shown (where the chesham branch is shown as going into a seperate interchange circle, and a dashed line links that to the met main) - it would save a note of "change at Chalfont for most Chesham trains, and make it more obvious! It's also far more deserving of the dash.

Whatever happened to the map which hollowed out any less than 4tph services? OK, so they were London Connections, and embolded the NR with more than 4tph, but there's this expectancy for turn up and go services. 6tph is pushing it, but 4 definitely isn't TUAG.

Also, a couple of changes could be done around earls court - 1) have the olympia shuttle seperate, with HSK's olympia shuttle on the left hand side of the circle. 2)have the C stock district (ie Wimbleware) colored differently (rather harder, as the trains and stations would need to be rebranded, I guess just wait for s stock and change it when/if the circle gets killed!)

Beck did want the victoria to be a straight line north of victoria, it made Euston/K+SP ugly though.

The Kennington dashed bit was shown in some maps of the late 80's so its not an entirely new invention, then again the timetable has only made this relevant again recently.

Actually thinking about it, the same map had a good way of dealing with Earl's Court, which was to have HSK, Gloucester Rd, West Ken, and West Brompton all going to one blob, and the Olympia shuttle completely seperate for its entire length, but dashed to show restricted service.

Even if it is feasable to reinstate them (and I've never been to any of those stations, so I don't know) they aren't acessbile until they are reinstated. The work to (re)instate disabled access takes time and money - there are currently access facilties under construction at KXSP (SSL) and Brixton according to the June 2006 map. There are also major projects ongoing at Regents Park and Lancaster Gate, along with many smaller projects.
Getting to every station will take time, and I'm sure which order things are done in will depend on things like PPP contracts, planning permission (possibly), complexity of the work, arangements with other station users (if any), cost-benefit ratios, etc, etc.
By my count there are about 75 stations on the June 2006 map that are marked as having step-free access (including the DLR). London Underground serve 275 stations, 34 (by my count) DLR stations not also served by the underground and 15 North London Line stations not served by either.
275 + 34 + 15 - 75 = 249 stations without step free access - be patient!

IIRC the change at Waterloo was an effort to show that only the Jubilee platform has step free access and the other platforms haven't.

Oh, I certainly agree with that! But the Paul Garbutt map that followed was IMHO better than both Hutchison and the later Beck versions.