Submitted by Moritz, who says:
It’s me again, Moritz – this time with an unofficial redesign of the light rail and regional rail map of my hometown, Dortmund. The light rail network itself is based on a simple principle where the trunk routes form a triangle in the city centre, thus allowing to reach every station with no more than one change of trains at one of the three central intersecting points. To depict this structure in the simplest way possible, I’ve chosen a 60-degree grid, which also allows the reduction of bends in the lines to a minimum. This network is then supplemented by the suburban and regional rail lines. They have the same thickness as the light rail lines to emphasise their importance also for journeys within the city, as in my opinion especially the suburban rail lines (S-Bahn) have to be presented to the user visually much more equal to the light rail as they are in the official map.
I have, however, left out most of the stations that are not within the city (= fare zone) boundaries of Dortmund as you’d have to consult the regional rail map anyway if you wanted to plan a journey out of the city; this way the fare zone border has to be marked only where there is an exception. Finally, I got rid of the “U” station markers as they are a historical relict connected to the development of public transport in the region. (They were used to differentiate between “Stadtbahn” and “Stadtbahnvorlaufbetrieb” routes on the one hand and tram routes on the other hand, but this technical difference is completely irrelevant to the user as they have the same speed and frequency. This can be seen in the official map legend, where the difference – although made! – is not even explained.)
I’m curious about your opinion!
Transit Maps says:
Oh, I do like this, Moritz! Very clean and simple, and the teardrop shape that the U45/U46 makes is rather lovely. The 30/60 degree angles work well, and for the most part the schematic representation maps fairly well to reality – the exception being the northern leg of the U47, which takes quite a different trajectory. That said, I can see why you’ve done it the way you have.
Possibly the only part that is slightly confusing is the two light grey Regionalexpress lines running east out of the Hauptbahnhof, as it’s a little difficult to tell how they relate to the lines coming in from the other directions. It might be that the two separate lines aren’t required: RE services run along this line with some stopping at Schamhorst and Kurl, and others not. It’s not always the map’s job to depict every single service pattern.
The “H-Bahn” had me intrigued, so I had to look it up. It’s one of those rarest of rail transit systems – a suspended railway!
Our rating: Clean, modern, stylish: there’s a lot to like about this! 3.5 stars.