Submitted by Bushland Maps, who says:

I have noticed that no one has submitted the Queensland Rail network map, so here it is! Sort of…

I have attached the link to the web page rather than the image because the legend isn’t on the map, its actually below it on the webpage… That will be fun to format!

I find this map peculiar for a few reasons, namely the fact that corners, station dot locations, and label locations have had no thought put in to their placement. Most labels along the trunk route have been placed over the coast despite the huge amount of empty space on the map, and the corner at Rockhampton is hideous!

Let us know what you think!

Transit Maps says:

This is one of those designs that really can’t decide whether its a map or a diagram – and the whole piece suffers greatly because of it. There are diagrammatic elements, like the dead straight lines with evenly-spaced stations for the lines heading west into “the outback”, but then the main trunk line from Brisbane up to Cairns (a distance of some 1600 km or 1000 miles!) weaves around all over the place in an attempt to stay “realistically” aligned to the coast, complete with “geographically” placed stations – note the huge gap between Rockhampton and St. Lawrence, for example.

The quotation marks around “realistically” and “geographically” are very intentional, by the way – because the map itself isn’t even really that accurate. Cape York has been pushed a long way to the east, with the Gulf of Carpentaria becoming disproportionately larger as a result. As is often the case with pseudo-maps like this, the coastline is overly detailed and distracting – with some ugly stair-stepping because of the rigid 45-degree angles. And do we really need to know where Lady Eliot Island – a tiny coral cay some 80 km off the coast – is located? Of the region locator labels, only the one for the Sunshine Coast is somewhat useful, but it really needs other regions to be similarly named – Darling Downs, Far North Queensland, etc. – or it’s just more distracting noise that doesn’t serve much of a purpose.

As to the labels for the main trunk line crossing the boundary between land and water, I don’t actually think that’s too much of a problem. I’d rather have the majority of labels (all of them, if possible!) to the right of the route line than have a mixed bag of some to the left and some to the right. As it is, poor old Proserpine looks very out of place as the sole label off to the left! As long as the contrast between the land and sea background is low, the text is still perfectly legible. Part of the problem stems from the grey used for Queensland here, which just looks dull and dead. To be honest, I’d much prefer that the ocean be a nice tropical light blue, Queensland white to maximise contrast and draw the eye to the important part of the map, and the other states a light, earthy colour to give an “Australian” vibe to the map. A grey Queensland floating on a white background without the rest of Australia around it just looks odd. And the empty space in the ocean could be used to add a useful legend instead of that rather sad north pointer. (Perhaps a hot take: I don’t think north pointers are necessary on a map of this scale: we know which way north is here!)

To be clear: this is never going to be a good geographical map – too many compromises with the placement of stations would have to be made. For example: the Westlander line would need to end much further east (Charleville is only halfway across the state) and all of the stations between Brisbane and Roma would need to fit it the easternmost half of that! And the Kuranda Scenic Railway (a wonderful train trip if you haven’t done it!) would just be a tiny blip out of Cairns.

So I’d lean fully into making this a proper diagram. Simplify and straighten all the route lines. Space all the stations on the main trunk line evenly. Pare back the “geography” to match the simplicity of the route lines. Make the background colour palette more visually pleasing. Add a comprehensive legend. And most importantly – add some craft and thought to the design, because this is pretty bland autopilot stuff at the moment.

Yeah, maybe I’ll do just that. Watch this space!

Our final word: A good example of a hybrid map/diagram that really doesn’t work.

Source: Queensland Rail Travel website