Submitted by Arne himself (and others). Arne says:

I started my own diagram of all the regular rail connections in Belgium that will be active after the schedule change coming in half December. I got the feeling there was so much noise around this schedule change (train lines being canceled or rerouted), but at no point the rail company had any nice visual representation of what the network would look like in the future. So I decided to make one myself and after a month, this is the result. I would love to know what you think about it! (you will find more background information about how my map was designed on my blog if you want to.)

Transit Maps says:

I do love a massive transit map project, and this one is a beauty! It’s definitely designed to be viewed on-screen as a PDF and zoomed in close, as the printed size would be around 28″ x 25.5″ with teeny-tiny 5-point station name labels. The labels that denote individual route numbers are even smaller, at just 2.5 points.

The first thing to notice is the huge hub of Brussels, which seems to sprawl across a huge portion of the map. While I appreciate the effort to show every route from end to end, I do wonder if there’s a workable way to compress all the routes of a particular type that stop at the same stations into one (perhaps thicker) line as it passes through the city. The main drawback of the style currently used is that some stations in Brussels that only have a few trains call at them – like Kapellekerk/Chapelle and Congres – have their dots a long way away from their labels. There’s eighteen blank route lines between Kapellekerk/Chapelle’s label and one lone dot! An approach I used on my Amtrak as Subway Map poster was to draw a thin line across the route lines that led the eye from the labels to the relevant dot.

The biggest problem I see with the map is the use of red and green as two of the four route line colours. These are almost indistinguishable from each other for colour-blind users, which presents a serious usability problem for the map. It’s ameliorated somewhat by having the service type labelled within each route line (IC versus L in this case), but as I’ve mentioned, these labels are tiny and not the easiest to read.

The only other little legibility edit that I would make would be to have all the little terminus discs that contain each route number/letter rotated so that they all read from the bottom of the map, rather than being aligned to the angle of the route. The less head-turning, the better!

Our rating: A comprehensive and attractive look at passenger rail in Belgium, although meant for close and detailed examination on screen, rather than as a printed map. Needs work to make it accessible for colour-blind users. Brings back memories of travelling Brussels-Gent-Brugge-Ieper-Brussels way back in 2003. Three-and-a-half stars.

See also: this official map from back in 2012.

Source: PDF from Arne’s project website