Here’s a review that’s definitely very overdue: the official Melbourne tram network diagram.

Overall, it’s a very pleasantly stylised depiction of the network using 30-degree angles, though it probably takes diagrammatic expansion of the downtown area to extremes. The distance from Harbour Esplanade to Spring Street is just 2.5km (or 1.5 miles), but it takes up a huge portion of the map, shrinking Melbourne’s expansive suburbs substantially. I will say that the extra room for the CBD is used well, however – I particularly like the inclusion of the physical footprints of the city railway stations and how they interact with major downtown tram stops.

The main axis of routes along Swanson Street/St. Kilda Road is the major compositional device of the map, and it’s a strong design element. I’d probably like to see the single routes that cut across this road be brought to the top of the layer stack to make them a little easier to follow: the 6 and 58 in particular could benefit from this, but the east-west routes in the downtown zone would also look better if they were in front, I think.

I believe that the labels for the roads that the trams run along are new to this version of the diagram, and they certainly help with navigation and general orientation, especially as not all the interchanges are named. The inclusion of major landmarks and points of interest is also very welcome, though not quite so much when they get shifted out of their proper location by other labels. For example, the Docklands Observation Wheel (yet another giant Ferris Wheel, branded as the Melbourne Star) is just 200 metres north of the Waterfront City Docklands stop, but that very label pushes the marker for the Wheel much further east, looking like a lengthy trek to reach.

Aside: It tickles me pink that in a city renowned for sports that need oval playing fields – cricket and Australian Rules Football – the venue used for the rugby codes and soccer is simply labelled as the “Rectangular Sports Stadium”.

The striped blue water is a pleasant design feature, although it does clash a bit with the similarly striped Zone 1/2 area to the top right of the map. As the zone area has to be striped to convey the idea that it’s “between zones”, I’d probably have looked for a different texture for the water (subtle waves, perhaps?), or just used a flat blue instead.

A clean, no-nonsense legend and neat integration of the night tram network and weekend route deviations are other highlights of the map.

Our final word: Once you get over the initial shock of the massive enlargement of the downtown area, this is actually a very competent diagram with a very consistent design language. More care could perhaps be taken with the order that the routes cross each other, but that’s not a deal breaker by any means. The addition of labels for the roads is a great evolution over the previous version.

Source: Yarra Trams website