Submitted by Marco, who says:

With a great pleasure I have read and learned from your posts and reviews. I would be grateful to hear your opinion on the Copenhagen transit map I developed earlier this year.

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The goal is to create a future-proof and iconic network map with design references to the city. The metropolitan area has four rail systems: heavy rail, the overground S-tog, the Metro and light rail. Until now, the different operators have their own style, although fares and transfers are flawless.

The map is inspired by characteristics from the S-trains (routes) and Metro (stations). The iconic 45º routes are simplified and integrated with the new ‘City ring’ to minimise the amount of curves. The lines and stations under construction have a reduced tone. Topography and landmarks are added to improve recognisability. Labels are kept horizontally and as large as possible, but exceptions have been made around the City-ring to suit the graphic concept.

A few custom design experiments are:

• Frequency of the C- and E-trains that occasionally terminate earlier
• Calling pattern of the rush-hour Bx-line
• Focus on transfer stations by marker and large label
• S-train markers have a hexagonal shape, referring to the new DSB logo

Also, a negative version with a dark background has been developed to represent the evening and weekend schedule. This map together with the design process can be found on Marco’s project page (well worth checking out – Cam)

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Transit Maps says:

There’s something about the future of transit in Copenhagen that seems to be inspiring people to create the most wonderful unofficial maps of it. Hot on the heels of Kristoffer Bæk’s lovely interpretation (January 2019, 4 stars) comes this equally good map from Marco.

Despite my note that Kristoffer had wisely resisted the temptation to make the M3 ring line a perfect circle, Marco has taken that idea and run with it, and he’s been largely successful. It does force some labels around the ring to be set diagonally to fit, but it’s all still nice and clean and legible throughout.

There’s a great underlying grid for this map that holds the whole thing together nicely, with a great sense of rhythm to everything. Everything’s deliberately placed and spaced: I especially like the way that the F line and the future light rail line nest inside each other almost perfectly, always the same distance apart as they encircle the city.

The geographical cues are a good inclusion – it’s good to know that Frederickssund is located on the eastern shore of Roskilde Fjord, for example. It can seem a little busy in parts because of the diagonally striped water background and the lightened “future” labels, but it always provides good context.

The treatment of the rush-hour Bx line seems to have been influenced by the way the New York Subway map treats its rush/express routes – breaking off from the main line to bypass some stations. It’s not normally my preferred approach, but it does reduce the number of lines through the busy city centre by one, so I think it works well enough here.

A minor complaint is that some of the stations (especially Copenhagen Central) have to be stretched out a lot to enable them to reach all the lines that pass through. It’s one slightly less than perfect byproduct of the perfect circle of the M3, but it’s not too distracting, thanks in park to the restrained station symbology that Marco has employed.

The final word: Another sterling look at Copenhagen’s transit future that draws its inspiration from the disparate official maps currently in use and merges them together to great effect. Four stars!

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Source: Marco’s project page