Submitted by Bruno Heemskerk, who says:

Railkaart (dutch for rail map) of Amsterdam. Train, metro and tram only, no buses. Consider the big airplane as icon for Schiphol Airport (no tram or metro connection). And the ‘Vondelpark’ with strong typography.

Transit Maps says:

This is one of those maps that has all the ingredients of a good transit map, but somehow ends up being much less than the sum of its parts. As Bruno suggests, much of this comes down to the lack of polish on the final product.

He rightly points out the oversized aeroplane icon for Amsterdam Schiphol airport (why indicate it so prominently on the map if neither of the two modes shown on the map actually go there?), but I also take issue with most of the other icons, which tread a very uneasy path between detailed “3D” drawings of landmarks and strangely “clip art-y” lion heads, buffalo (!) and tulips. Some of the landmark icons are thickly outlined in black, making them look a little cartoon-like, while others—like the Amsterdam Arena—are not. From different original sources, perhaps? All in all, they’re a pretty inconsistent bunch that really don’t gel very well with each other.

The rest of the map is full of other little problems that—for me, at least—just detract from the overall quality. An example is the inconsistent placement of labels at the termini of the Metro lines: there’s simply no reason for all of them to be placed completely differently in relationship to their line numbers. There’s also some poorly nested corners with some of the route lines, especially to the immediate west of Overamstel station. There’s more, but you get the idea.

Our rating: I realise that I’m probably making this map sound a lot worse than it is—the routes are easy enough to follow and the map certainly isn’t hideous—but all these little niggles just add up to an unsatisfying experience. It’s certainly a far cry from the beautiful diagrammatic map Amsterdam had in the 1980s. Two-and-half stars.

Source: Official GVB website