Today, the FrontRunner commuter rail system opens for revenue service south of Salt Lake all the way down to Provo, and there’s a new version of the map to reflect this new service. I reviewed a previous version of this map back in July, and I didn’t have much positive to say about it then – and my opinion has not been changed with this new iteration. Quite a few people have submitted this new map to me, and they’ve all been extremely critical of it as well.

Have we been there? Yes, but I haven’t caught any trains.

What we like: To be honest: nothing.

What we don’t like: Almost all the flaws from the previous version of the map remain: the one thing that has improved is the removal of the huge labels explaining the concept of a transfer station. Downtown remains cramped and ugly, while the labelling of stations remains a sloppy, disorganised mess – possibly even worse than before – with some station names now a ridiculously long way from their related station marker (such as North Temple Bridge/Guadalupe).

Speaking of labels, the “FrontRunner” and “FrontRunner South” labels are inexcusably set in completely different fonts: the former in Swiss (a cheap Helvetica clone), the latter in Arial… look at the capital “R” and you’ll see they have completely different shapes.

And why does the South FrontRunner route line extend past Provo when it’s the end of the line?

Our rating: Simply terrible. One submitter of this map, Garrett Smith, sums it up very eloquently, I think:

“You know, it saddens me just a tad bit. Salt Lake City has made such an investment in its rail infrastructure, beginning with the initial 16-mile stretch of the Blue Line between downtown and Sandy in 1999. A mere fourteen years later, we’ve seen the construction of a 90-mile commuter rail line linking the entirety of the urban conglomeration in which Salt Lake lies, as well as massive light rail expansion. To show for it? We’ve got one of the worst transit maps around.”

Another anonymous submitter simply calls this map “embarrassing”… and it is. With the new FrontRunner extension, there was an opportunity for a fresh look at this map, a chance to create something vibrant, modern and attractive that matched the obvious quality of the system itself. Instead, we get this. Half a star.

Source: Official UTA FrontRunner schedule page