DART’s long-awaited Silver Line is opening at the end of October, and the agency already has a map out well in advance, so let’s take a look, shall we?
Look, this diagram is perfectly functional and does its job, but there are some absolutely baffling design decisions that have been made.
First and foremost is the decision to put a big “Effective September 15, 2025” label on the diagram, and then hiding the fact that the Silver Line doesn’t actually open until “Fall 2025” (currently planned for October 25, I believe) in small grey type over in the legend. This is obtuse at best and downright misleading at worst – many people are going to see that September date and assume that the Silver Line is open for service, when there’s still more than a month to go.
Then there’s the depiction of the Silver Line itself: the new, modern flagship route reduced to stair-stepping its way across the diagram like a drunken escalator, with ten – ten! – changes in direction on the way, some of them underneath station symbols. Even under the constraints of this diagram’s format, there has a way to straighten out and simplify this line so it looks like a fast and direct route.
Then there’s the whole issue of all the different angles used for the route lines. Every single angled line is different and only one of them is exactly 45 degrees! Yes, I measured all of them because I was trying to work out why the diagram felt so visually uneasy – my results are shown below.
As you can see, there are “45-degree” angles that actually range from 38.8 to 46.2 degrees, and “60-degree” angles between 56.7 amd 59.6 degrees. It’s absolutely bonkers and makes it looks like the design team just eyeballed everything instead of constraining their angles properly. Craziest of all is the A Train, which should just be an extension of the Green Line’s one and only actual 45 degree angle, but somehow manages to measure in at just 44.2 degrees!
Add to all this some poor labelling (why is Westmoreland to the right of the route line when all the other stations on that leg of the Red Line are to the left?), some badly nested curves, and a pretty inelegant fare zone boundary to the left of the diagram, and the whole thing feels very unfinished, almost like a first draft. It’s certainly not something I’d like to use to promote my brand new line.
Our final word: Bizarrely sloppy.
Source: DART website
This map is one of the best maps that’s been shown on this website. Forget most of the criticisms from the review above, because they don’t matter. This map is clear, distinctive, friendly, and easy to read. I particularly like how clear the fare change zone is, the bold coloured lines with the line letters in the terminus bubbles, the large size of the text, and overall how balanced it is.
Should some of things that were criticised be fixed? Certainly, but they don’t detract from the final result very much. Indeed, I can’t see any major faults with this map at all, although I have zero familiarity with the system so maybe there are some.
This is one of the *worst* transit maps I have seen anywhere. To begin with, the new official map has a mistake on it: the Hidden Ridge station on the Orange line is actually between the Dallas College North Lake Campus station and the Irving Convention Center station, NOT between the Belt Line station and the Dallas College North Lake Campus station, as shown on the map. I find it quite pathetic that a major agency like DART produces a map with mistakes and random angles for an opening of a $2 billion project.
Another baffling detail: Centreport/DFW Airport station is bisected by the fare zone boundary, which means the legibility of the label becomes a concern. The chosen solution was to spell the station name as “Cent rePort”, with a space to allow the fare zone boundary line to pass through!
Reading a post about this on the Urbanrail email list, it was pointed out that the Hidden Ridge station on the Orange Line is actually between the Dallas College North Lake Campus station and the Irving Convention Center station, not between the Belt Line station and the Dallas College North Lake Campus station. Since then, there has been a new map published with the published date of October 25th with the correction on the Orange Line.
https://dartorgcmsblob.dart.org/prod/docs/default-source/dart-maps/l5c_121-5593-0725-silver-line-fy25—customer-information-signage—rail-map-rail-interior_digital.pdf
Unfortunately the unsettling angles and the stepped Silver Line are still there. A negative comment from me would be that I wish the A-train had a different color than yellow with green casing. The green casing makes it seems like it’s some extension of the Green Line. Also the Region Zone bubble shape is also somewhat unsettling, maybe they should lessen the 90° angles with some 45° angles for the corners.
On the positive side, I do find the middle and right side of the diagram to be quite good and easy to follow if they would just standardize the angles.
I am not sure what the point is in discussing any graphic advantages or disadvantages of this map. This official map has a mistake on it – the Hidden Ridge station on the Orange line is actually between the Dallas College North Lake Campus station and the Irving Convention Center station, NOT between the Belt Line station and the Dallas College North Lake Campus station, as shown on the map. The old official map did not have this mistake. I find it quite pathetic that a major agency like DART produces a map with mistakes for an opening of a $2 billion project. It tells you the level of competency of the employees at the agency (or, to be precise, the lack thereof). So, it should be no surprise that graphics is subpar as well.