Submitted by Jim, who says:

I came across this horrendous mess of lines and angles. Its the Weekday Service map for Belgian Rail – the national rail company for Belgium. Sorry its only in French/Dutch, but I think the drawing speaks for itself. I know making a map for a whole country is no easy feat but I feel like there must be some improvements to be made, especially around Brussels.

Transit Maps says:

Yep, that’s pretty awful, alright. The chaotic tangle of thin lines in and around Brussels is almost impossible to decipher, with lines criss-crossing at all angles without any attempt to layer or order them effectively. The insipid labelling doesn’t help either – local trains get a green number slapped on top of a green route line, with a low-contrast drop shadow between them – and the massive, sprawling map legend is pretty unattractive as well.

About the only thing I really like from this map is the “wide” station dot used to show where a single route number bifurcates (or joins together, depending on direction of travel). See route 4 at Kortijk, which splits to go to either Poperinge or Lille, France.

Our rating: Cheap and nasty; almost impossible to use in the area around Brussels. One star.

If you want to see pretty much the same map, just executed a heck of a lot better, check out Arne Nys’ unofficial map of rail in Belgium (November 2014, 3.5 stars).

Source: Belgian Railways website (PDF)