Submitted by A. Potts, who says:
Hi! This is the official map of the Manchester Metrolink, a tramway/light rail system in Northern England. I just thought I’d submit it to you for your opinion on it. This isn’t mine, obviously, but I haven’t been able to find who made it. If that’s something you also know, I’d love to know.
Transit Maps says:
Tracking down who produces official transit maps can be quite tricky. Even if they’re actually made by an external company, they’re often just released under the auspices of the transit agency that commissioned them, with little or no reference to the design/cartography firm anywhere on the map itself. Some design firms have a recognisable “house style” that makes their work a little easier to identify even without a credit line – CHK America here in the US, Netzplan in Australia and Best Impressions in the UK are good examples of this.
That said, I’m not sure who made this particular map, but I sure do like it! Manchester has had this style of map for a while now (see this from 2014), although this version is something of a temporary stop-gap map while the central Market Street station is rebuilt. As a result, the system – which normally has through-running services across the city centre – has been split into two separate parts, with shuttle buses filling in the gap.
What I really like about this map is that it’s very much its own master – it looks unique to Manchester, with very few design nods back towards the almost ubiquitous London Underground tube map (which must always be hanging over designer’s heads in the UK!). The station markers are fantastic – always pointing towards the station name – and the way that they fit modularly into the extra information icons is great. The park-and-ride icons even indicate how many spaces are available for parking, which is awesome information to include.
The narrow shape of the map is interesting, as it definitely compresses the north-south dimensions of the real world system quite a bit. I’m guessing that this is to fit the map into available space in stations or on trains, but can’t be sure. Older versions have definitely been squarer than this, so the change is intriguing.
One thing I do miss from previous versions is the completely circular city centre shading: the rounded polygon used here just looks a little clumsy and awkward in comparison. Hopefully, its inclusion is as temporary as Market Street’s closure is!
Our rating: Another great diagrammatic map with a very distinctive style. Four stars.
Source: Manchester Metrolink website