Submission – Official Map: Montreal Commuter Rail Map, 2018

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Submitted by Ruofan, who says:

Montreal’s transit agency recently redesigned its commuter rail map, and I think it looks awful compared to the old one! They’ve added so much clutter, by indicating literally every commuter bus line in the city (and even illustrating which segments of the lines run on bus lanes) and using thick, colourful lines for the metro. The downtown segment is almost unreadable!

Transit Maps says:

Yeah, I have to agree with Ruofan’s summary of this map… this is pretty terrible stuff. Generally, if an inset map doesn’t actually make anything clearer, then you have to question its inclusion. All this one seems to do is make the mess of the central area ever so slightly larger…

As usual with a geographical transit map that covers a large area, there’s a lot of empty space that could be better utilised by expanding the central area for clarity and compressing the outlying areas. As it is, I’m really not sure that the addition of the Metro and the (unnumbered) commuter bus lines actually adds any useable information to the map, just a lot of noise.

Our rating: Cluttered, messy and unattractive. 1 star. 

Source: RTM website (PDF link)

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