After quite a few stellar maps, it’s time to show what I consider to be one of the least successful transit maps in current use in the US. To put it bluntly, SEPTA’s map is an unappealing, jumbled mess and certainly does not get me excited to use their system (a major plus point in my internal scoring system).

Have we been there? No.

What we like: Deserves credit for attempting to show so many different modes on one map as well as connections to other, unrelated, services – Amtrak, PATCO and the River Line in Trenton, NJ. Pity it’s so ugly.

What we don’t like: Oh dear, where to begin?

Huge blobby terminus stations on the regional rail lines. Incredibly tight spacing between stations on the 101 trolley line. Compare the dense 101 and 102 trolleys with the other trolley lines, which peter out into unconvincing arrows after a few stops – mainly because the designer couldn’t work out how to fit them in the space allocated, I think. Where is Port Richmond, anyway? This map sure doesn’t tell me.

No visual distinction that the Red PATCO line isn’t part of SEPTA’s services (you have to read the legend to find that out).

Yellow “Free Interchange” symbols are U-G-L-Y. Curves on the Regional Rail lines are inconsistent and technically deficient (look at the one heading north to the left of 30th Street Station and how it’s been hideously bent to avoid the word “Amtrak”).

While the rivers have been rendered in diagrammatic form, the map still wants to show every single little twist and turn in the shoreline – overwrought and unnecessary (as well as badly drawn – lots of non-45-degree angles can be seen).

Finally, this map totally fails the color-blind test: almost everything ends up yellow or blue with very little contrast between adjacent lines and nothing on the map apart from colour to link the routes to the legend.

Our rating: I call it “the blobby map”. Hideous and unwelcoming. One-and-a-half stars.

Source: Official SEPTA website