Got this question from an anonymous follower:

Would you have or be able to mock up a map of what the London transit map would look like now that TfL have taken over all suburban rail traffic?

For those not in the loop, Transport for London (TfL) will be bringing the operations of all the various train franchises that currently provide suburban or commuter rail service in the Greater London area under the “Overground” umbrella as their contracts expire. This means the changeover will be staggered up through 2019 or 2020, so any new unified map will change incrementally. But basically, the map below (available on the TfL website here) already shows the system, and it’s quite the tangled web.

Of course, the fact that all the rail services will be branded as the Overground has caused many to wonder if all these myriad lines will be recoloured in that service’s distinctive orange. (Dear god, I hope not!) I would like to think that the Overground and Underground will be separated out into two distinct maps, as (as the image above shows), the whole network is too much for the genteel old world style of the Beck map to handle.

Maybe TfL’s map designers might just lose their minds: