Submitted by SounderBruce, who says:

Sound Transit has put up the first of the new Link Light Rail maps in its trains here in Seattle, featuring the new “Red Line” branding that will be phased in by the time the second line (the Blue Line, formerly East Link) opens in 2023. The two “Coming Soon” signs are covering 3 new stations that are opening in 2016, extending the existing line up to the Univ. of Washington via Capitol Hill and to Angle Lake near Sea-Tac Airport.

Transit Maps says:

Looks like Sound Transit is getting ready for change nice and early… the three new stations are coming soon enough, but the official switch over to the Red Line name for what is now just “Central Link” won’t happen until 2023, when the East Link line over Lake Washington to Bellevue and Overlake opens – this will then become the “Blue Line”.

I quite like the mystery of the big “Coming Soon” notices at each end of the map, although I do note that the labels for the current terminal stations at Westlake/Seattle and SeaTac/Airport are set in bold type. Presumably, the future termini at the University of Washington and Angle Lake will also be bold, so that’ll look a little odd.

Interestingly, our old friends, the required-by-state-law pictograms, have been released from the circles that they used to be contained within, which does give them each a slightly more unique silhouette than before. However, they’ve all been angled 45 degrees counter-clockwise with their label, which reduces their clarity somewhat (also, the Mount Baker pictogram on its side looks kind of ridiculous). I do think it’s interesting – and perhaps inconsistent – that the icons for connections below the route line stay horizontal while the icons for the stations themselves are angled.

Our rating: A little change in preparation for the future. It’s only got a shelf-life of a few years, but could perhaps have been executed a little better. Two-and-a-half stars.

Source: SounderBruce/Flickr