Submitted by Simon, who says:

My name is Simon and for a long time I have been a fan of your blog. I already sent you a couple of maps via this form, although I am not sure whether you received them. Recently, I have completed a simple map that I am quite proud of – it’s a map of the rail services of Luxembourg. Notwithstanding Jug Cerović’s fabulous Luxembourg bus map, the official map by the railway company CFL is so hideous, that I could only find this outdated version on the internet (line 80 has been withdrawn in 2016). I would be honoured if you took some time to look over it and provide some feedback to me.

I do not have much mapping experience, but I hope there are not too many beginners’ mistakes. I tried having straight lines as much as possible, which did work with lines 10, 30 and 50. The southern area of the network around Esch-sur-Alzette is a bit more complicated, so there are some angles there.

I used the colours from the official map, however I made up the line numbering scheme. The RE11 (which is actually running on line 30, blame Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate for this) is the only line that uses line numbers, although I did see a “RE60” train to Rodange once at Luxembourg station, which is why I tried to make it as close to the actual system used as possible (Lines RB61, RB62, RB63 run on the timetable routes 60A, 60B, 60C respectively). I also added the Aubange-Athus-Arlon line in Belgium, operated by SNCB/NMBS’ L13 that provides a useful link in the west, and also the German RB82 on the Upper Moselle Railway, which also serves many Luxembourgish cities and towns just across the river from Germany, such as Schengen (yes, that Schengen), and Grevenmacher.

A few things were tricky about the map, because since December, there are a few cross-Luxembourg train services on weekdays; namely the RB of lines 30 and 60, as well as the RE of lines 10 and 30 are combined, and also the RE of line 70 continues to Mersch on line 10. I’ve tried making it clear in the timetable explanation, however I am not yet totally convinced. Also, my map shows – at least a bit – the stopping pattern of RB and RE services. In and around Luxembourg City, the interchanges with the urban bus and tram system are shown by this small VDL icon, with VDL standing for Ville de Luxembourg.

The main language of the map is French, as that is what CFL mostly uses, although I provided some translations in German and English. Luxembourgish does not seem to be used by CFL at all really, apart from some ad posters and on-train announcements; also, I wouldn’t be able to write that anyways (as a German I do understand it very well though).

Transit Maps says:

Overall, this is quite a lovely effort from Simon. The simplified pentagonal layout works well, and I especially appreciate the way that the purple “70″ and green “30″ lines form a single straight axis through Luxembourg City: very neatly done. The legend seems very comprehensive, although Tumblr’s image size restrictions means that I can’t read all of it. Indication of train frequency in the legend is good information.

Labelling is perhaps a little small throughout: there’s room in most places to make it a little bigger without too much hassle. Similarly, the little “VDL” discs seem a little small and hard to make out.

The one angle that bothers me is that on the orange line between Petange and Esch/Alzette: its 45-degree tilt really sticks out when everything else is at 30/60. Personally, I’d like to see it at the same angle as the section out of Luxembourg to Bettembourg to the south-east, even if that means lengthening the straight section from Noertzange to Audun-le-Tiche to accommodate it. The country’s borders are already quite distorted by the diagrammatic treatment, so a little bit more in the busiest part of the map won’t make much difference.

Finally, the thinning out route lines where they run concurrent to each other could be a little problematic. Often, a thinner route line can be taken to mean less frequency of service in that section, especially as more and more modern transit maps incorporate frequency information. The legend mitigates this a bit, but it’s still something to be aware of. I generally prefer to run two full-thickness lines next to each other instead of halving their width to fit into the space of one.