Well, this is just beautiful.
Having made my own diagram on the same subject matter way, way back in 2011, I think I’m qualified to say that this is a rousing success. The maps have some similarities – routes are colour-coded either by their Paris origin station or operator (Yellow for Eurostar, burgundy for Thalys, Pink for the low-cost Ouigo service, etc.), and the Paris stations are the undeniable focus point of the map. But where I opted for a circular ring of stations around Paris, Lars has hit upon the genius idea of using a pentagonal system. This not only looks great, but also leaves a gap to the north-east where his icon for the Eiffel Tower slots very neatly into a position similar to the one it occupies in real life. Lovely!
And this pentagonal shape isn’t just superficial, either – it forms the centre point of a comprehensive grid system that rotates 72 degrees for each of the map’s sectors, as seen in the image below. It’s an incredibly clever solution that lends a lot of clarity and sophistication to the map, and I love it. It’s just so much more suited to the depiction of the network than a standard octolinear diagram.
Lars has also encoded a lot of useful information to the map – general service frequencies (though he notes that this information is hard to come by, as the SNCF doesn’t really believe in online timetables any more), the names of the LGV branches, selected winter services, and whether or not all trains call at a particular station. I find the “dotted outline” symbol for this possibly the weakest part of the map, as it breaks up into an indistinct shape rather than being immediately recognisable, but this is a pretty minor quibble. And we get icons for major landmarks dotted around the map for some visual interest as well – bonus!
One thing that could be looked at is some of the minor lines that pass underneath the main trunks – in some locations, it can be a little hard to tell where they go or where they join another route – the line from Le Havre just sort of disappears somewhere near Massy TGV and the “slow” TGV down to Miramas winds back and forth hidden behind the main line, and looks quite disjointed as a result. This may just be a stylistic choice to emphasise the importance of those major trunk lines, though we always have to weigh up the trade-offs when doing something like this.
Our final word: Fantastique! The clever usage of an unusual pentagonal grid works brilliantly to make one of my favourite maps of 2023.
Source: Lars’ Transport Maps
Why is there a child pissing on Brussels? Or is that not what I’m seeing?
That’s Manneken Pis, a statue/fountain in Brussels that’s a major tourist attraction (no, seriously!).
Mr Pedant was going to say “nuh uh, this is a map of LIGNES à grande vitesse, not TRAIN à grande vitesse!” And then I adjusted my bifocals and realized that, no, this actually shows the *services* that run over the various lignes and in quite a bit of detail.
Very nice!
a couple of nitpicky branding things:
It needs an update with regard Paris-Brussels (and beyond) as the “Thalys” brand is no more, this is (as of this month!) now branded as Eurostar
The Gare de Lyon-Zurich services (and some others?) are branded “TGV Lyria” rather than “TGV Ouigo”, with a separate fleet with it’s own power car livery
Well, the map is dated “September 2023”, so Thalys and Eurostar were still separate entities then… and it’ll take a while for the rebrand to fully take effect. I believe the ex-Thalys trains will retain their distinctive deep red livery after the merger, so perhaps the only change that needs to be made is to rename “Thalys” as “Eurostar”?
As for TGV Lyria, Lars had this to say over on Mastodon: “I decided not to distinguish between TGV inoui and TGV Lyria, because the distinction is rather minor for passengers and there would be one more colour leading to Gare de Lyon.” Personally, I think that’s a bit odd when he’s made that distinction when it comes to ICE, AVE and Frecciarosso services, but it’s not my map!