Just dropped on the LA Metro Twitter account, here’s a first look at their new system map once the Regional Connector opens at noon, this Friday June 16.

First off, one prediction I made in my previous review [October 2022] has been proven true: this map marks the end of the old colour-based line designations. No more Red Line, Blue Line, etc. – it’s now A, B, C and so on.

I’ll also note that it really does seem that someone responsible for making these maps reads this blog: my last review opined that even spacing of the station names along the B Line might look better than even spacing of the station dots… and that’s exactly what we have this time around. I also like that these labels have all been set horizontally instead of on a 45-degree angle, a treatment which is now solely reserved for stations along horizontal route lines.

There’s no surprises with the depiction of the Regional Connector itself on the map: it’s been shown as being under construction for a while now, and this map keeps true to those earlier depictions. The criss-crossing route lines through downtown LA make a nice design feature, and I do like the way that the “Historic Broadway” label nestles neatly into the curve near it – a clever little touch.

A distinctive feature of previous maps has disappeared with this iteration – the white keyline around station dots that separated them from the route line they were above has been replaced with more generic dots with a white centre. I wonder if they felt the previous approach broke up the flow of the route lines too much? And while the dots for rail services are still round, and the dots for bus services are still square, they’re a bit harder to quickly tell apart with the white centres and slightly rounded corners on the square symbols.

Another change is assigning a two-letter code to all connecting services (Amtrak, Metrolink, FlyAway and the C Line’s Airport Shuttle). This does make the map itself look a bit cleaner, but it also means that users have to refer to the legend to work out what those two-letter codes mean instead of just reading that information in-place on the map.

Our final word: Golly, that new A Line is long, isn’t it? A fairly safe update of an already excellent map. However, it’s perhaps been made a little bit more generic with the removal of what was a very distinctive design element.

Update: Oran V on Twitter provides context for some of these changes – it brings the system map into line with other maps that already used those elements.

Source: LA Metro/Twitter