Submitted by Lukas, who says:
Hi, wanted to send you the new official map of Maryland’s MARC commuter rail system, as seen on the Maryland MTA website. I think it is a great improvement over the old system map. The map very visibly derives its thick lines and transfer station dots from the Washington DC Metro map, which I think it manages to pull off well. However, there are a few things I want to criticize about it, one being that the Union Station dots only partially fall within the shaded District of Columbia. Another is that, at first glance, New Carrollton, Silver Spring, and Riverdale all look like they are the same station. Finally, the Baltimore Metro and LRT lines are shown in full, but the DC Metro lines are only referenced as small Metro logos next to stations. Presumably, this is because MTA operates the Baltimore rapid transit system but not Washington’s. What do you think of the map?
Transit Maps says:
Well, it’s certainly a vast improvement over the previous official map (June 2014, 1 star), though perhaps not quite as good as the late Peter Dovak’s excellent unofficial version (July 2015, 4 stars).
As Lukas says, the treatment of the Silver Spring, Riverdale and New Carrollton stations is unfortunate – they’re on three different lines with some distance between them in real life, so to imply they’re adjacent to each other is disingenuous to say the least. Even staggering Riverdale to sit a little lower than the other two stations would break them up a bit better.
I’m not really enamoured of the diagonal labels for the stations, but at least it’s handled consistently and probably helps in creating that WMATA Metro Map feeling that Lukas mentions. However, I think the map could definitely lose some of the smaller locality labels scattered around. Annapolis, for instance, is some 20 miles by road to the nearest MARC station, while Reston and McLean are in Virginia and not really relevant to this Maryland-based network.
The legend is comprehensive and easy to read, and I especially appreciate the indication of when each line runs – weekday peak service only on the Camden and Brunswick lines!
Our rating: Bright, chunky and cheerful. Definitely a huge step up in quality from the previous map! Three stars.
UPDATE: It’s just been pointed out to me that Harpers Ferry on the Brunswick Line should be located on the opposite bank of the Potomac, which is a pretty big error. Hoping that gets fixed soon!
Source: MTA website (PDF link)
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