Very aesthetically appealing infographic that compares 18 circle railway lines from around the world. The top part of the graphic displays the lines in a schematic fashion, representing each by its average diameter. The stations that comprise each line are then simply spaced evenly around the circumference to create a very striking pattern. Stations that interchange with other lines are represented by placing a small white dot in the centre of a station’s marker.
Below, information about each line – the number of stations, number of interchanges with other lines, the line’s length and radius, etc. – is displayed, along with a list of all the stations that make up each line. The colour-coding of the lines is designed to create a pleasing visual effect –working its way in order through the colour spectrum – rather than using each line’s “traditional” colour from their respective maps. While this is an understandable design choice, it’s still a little weird to see London’s Circle Line represented by a lovely shade of lime green.
For those who can’t quite make it out, the Circle lines represented (in ascending order of diameter) are:
- Miami, Florida
- Charleroi, Belgium
- Detroit, Michigan
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Oslo, Norway
- Moscow, Russia
- Osaka, Japan
- Madrid, Spain (Line 6);
- London, England (technically a spiral now, rather than a true loop)
- Nagoya, Japan
- Beijing, China (Line 2)
- Shanghai, China
- Tokyo, Japan
- Delhi, India
- Berlin, Germany
- Madrid, Spain (Line 12 – MetroSur)
- Seoul, South Korea
- Beijing, China (Line 10)
Overall, this graphic looks great and provides an interesting, easily digestible, comparison between all these loop railroads. It would be interesting to see a version that plotted the actual routes and stations accurately against each other, rather than this heavily stylised view.
Source: Matthew Lew’s Behance portfolio