Unofficial Future Map: Amsterdam Metro “Time” Diagram by Alain Lemaire

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Future Maps, Unofficial Maps

Here’s a really nicely thematic diagram of the future 2019 Amsterdam Metro, once the 52-Noord Zuid opens and the 51 gets demoted to “express tram” south of Zuid station and wil be routed around the loop to Isolatorweg instead.

This is hardly the first circular Amsterdam map I’ve featured on Transit Maps (see this from way back in 2012), but I do really like the way Alain has thematically tied the whole thing together with the theme of “time”. The new Noord-Zuid line becomes the hands of a clock, while the second smaller circle can perhaps suggest an hourglass when combined with the larger one. Even the typeface – Futura – is suggestive of the theme of moving towards the future.

On a technical note, I’d like to acknowledge the work that Alain’s done to make the two circles relate to each other visually. The main circle is divided into 22 equal parts (there’s room left for three stations between CS and Isolatorweg), while the smaller circle has 13 stations. Alain has used that 22:13 ratio for the circumference of each circle, so that the stations have the same space between them, regardless of whether they’re on the large or small circle. Mathematics!

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