Submitted by John, who says:

The Sofia Metro is a not-so-big metro system in the capital of Bulgaria. Although I’m not Bulgarian, nor live in Bulgaria, I’ve been there, and it’s quite nice. The following map is the latest one, from the opening of Line 3, on the 26th of August, this year. It’s quite simple, but unlike the previous ones, it’s far more consistent (as it uses the same angles, colors, stuff like that), and much more visually appealing. Any thoughts?

Transit Maps says:

Yes, this is a vast improvement over older Sofia Metro maps! To me, it looks like an evolution in design from the quasi-official version created and promoted by the Spazi Sofia NGO back in 2015 (review here – Cam). It uses the same icons for the points of interest, which suggests a shared parentage.

Overall, I quite like it, though some of the labelling is carelessly placed. The long leader line down to Ovcha Kupel II station is unnecessary, and quite a few names cut across route lines. The long station names and bilingual labels don’t help matters, but I feel that more care could perhaps have been taken.

The other main point of contention is the grey background to indicate the boundaries of the city – I feel that this is redundant and just makes the background busier than it needs to be. However, if it was removed, I guess the question of whether to continue to include the parkland areas would have to be addressed.

Our final word: A solid evolution of the work done by Spazi Sofia, now made fully official, it seems. There’s nothing truly outstanding about it, but it’s clean, simple and pleasing to the eye. 3 stars.

Source: Sofia Metro website