Originally submitted by Philip himself, with further submissions reminding me of it recently. Of the map, Philip says:

This is my interpretation of what Melbourne’s rail network could look like in the style of the 1972 Vignelli New York Subway map.

I have depicted the current Melbourne metropolitan passenger rail network as it stands in 2020, plus one tram route. Given this is a map of Melbourne with the largest tram network in the world, I wanted to include at least one tram route. Why the route 96 specifically? It’s the closest thing that we have to light rail, being separated from vehicle traffic for most of its route, and it now has 100% accessible stops.

I have also taken some small liberties of rebranding the network to reflect the original work more closely.

For example, creating a new ‘Metropolitan Transport Authority’ (similar to ‘The Met’ and its various iterations) and designating a colour and letter for each line.

Transit Maps says:

Yes, there are way too many Vignelli-esque reimaginings of transit maps these days – see these maps of Los Angeles and Portland that I’ve previously featured – but this is a fun little diversion for a Friday afternoon.

Generally, Philip has nailed the look and feel of the Vignelli diagram well – the reimagined logo for the Melbourne “MTA” is a particularly nice touch – though I think that Vignelli’s insistence on each service having a full route line on the map would mean that the Alamein, Belgrave and Lilydale lines would get separated out instead of appearing as branches of the one trunk line. This strict interpretation of the Vignelli style would make the City Loop completely unworkable, however, so I can see why Philip has taken this approach.

Less forgivable is the repetition of letters for line designations: only “SS” shuttle lines repeat on the Vignelli map, so I don’t think having three “S” lines (Sunbury, Sandringham, and Stony Point) is really permissible. Taking further inspiration from the source, maybe one of the “divisions” of this fantasy MTA could use numerical designations?

The map does have one masterstroke, however – the legend of services at the top clearly and plainly explains service patterns for each line, including when each one goes clockwise or counter-clockwise around the Loop, long an arcane mystery. As this information is impossible to convey on a static map, this explanatory text is the best solution I’ve yet seen, and perfectly in line with the similar legend on the Vignelli diagram.

Our final word: A great bit of fun that looks the part, and also manages to convey some really useful rider information.

Source: Philip’s blog