I’ve got a whole slew of requests for a review of this recently released map, so hold onto your hats! First off, this map is the final result of a three year process – Transit Maps reviewed an initial concept back in April 2014 – so it’s definitely taken a while to reach this final form. The gradual adoption of a new corporate identity for Public Transport Victoria (PTV), complete with a custom typeface called “Network Sans”, may have had something to do with this long gestation.
Overall, I really quite like this map. It’s technically well-drawn and pleasingly compact and is definitely an improvement over the old two-colour zonal Metro map. The new map uses colour coding for routes, but it’s more akin to the New York Subway map’s “grouping by shared trunk line” technique than the London Underground’s “every route gets its own colour” approach. The hub-and-spoke nature of the network means that this isn’t really a problem, though, as the lines don’t really interact with each other away from the CBD. A definite advantage of this approach is that there’s less lines to draw through the City Loop!
(As a side note, the 2014 draft map did a much better job of showing that the Alamein Line operates as a shuttle to Camberwell at non-peak times; that information is relegated to the legend here. Show, don’t tell!)
A question I’ve been asked: should this map show regional trains (which cover much of the entire state of Victoria) on the same map as Melbourne’s metropolitan rail service? I will say that it’s unusual to depict these two different types of services on the same map, but I think it works here for a few reasons.
One: regional trains act as commuter rail from some satellite suburbs just outside Melbourne, like Bacchus Marsh or Heathcote Junction. These areas lack Metro service, but are still within fare zones 1 and 2, shown as the white area on the map.
Two: the networks mostly share the same myki fare system (and the map clearly indicates where an old-school paper ticket is required at the truly distant ends of the line), so the two systems act as an integrated whole. And if you’re going to go to the trouble of having a fare system that covers pretty much the whole state, then I think you can show all the rail services that use it on the same map.
Three: the grey shading used to denote fare zones 3 through 13 (i.e., “Not Melbourne”) also acts as a clear boundary between the more geographical central part of the map and the schematic representation of the rest of Victoria. Yes, it’d be nice if Albury was closer to the top of the map than Shepparton, but it’s not hugely important for the purposes of this map.
Perhaps the only thing “wrong” with this approach is that the equal visual treatment of Metro and V/Line implies an equal level of service in terms of frequency, which almost certainly isn’t true, especially the further from Melbourne you get. A lighter colour or maybe grey for V/Line, or a thinner route line, could alleviate this problem somewhat, but PTV have made it pretty clear that purple is the official colour they’re using for regional services, as seen on this map reviewed in November 2015.
One other minor technical thing is that the grey used for the grid lines is almost as dark as the text used for station labels, and can interfere with readability in some instances. At Batman station, it almost looks like a strikethrough!
Our rating: A definite improvement! An unusual approach that combines metro services with regional trains, but I think it does a pretty decent job overall. Three-and-a-half stars!
Source: Public Transport Victoria website (PDF)