Submitted by Simon S., who says:

I recently travelled through Basel, in North West Switzerland and noticed this map. It shows the suburban train network of the city, that reaches into Germany and France. I think the map itself is quite well made (very simplistic), but my subjective observation is that the system isn’t as unified as it seems – neither DB nor SNCF advertise their respective as “S-Bahn Basel” or “RER Bâle”. You can also notice that it is a Swiss-made map through the station names: Lörrach Dammstrasse, for example, is actually spelled -straße but Switzerland doesn’t use that letter.

Transit Maps says:

I think there’s a reason why the system isn’t as unified as it first appears, Simon. The Trireno initiative is a long-term plan that aims to have S-Bahn style rail service (30 minute headways on the branches, interlined to 15 minutes or less in the core) in and around the Basel conurbation by 2030. This map only reflects the current, early stages of the program – with the S-Bahn confined to Switzerland and connecting services in France and Germany handled by existing regional trains. The proposed 2030 system can be seen in the map below – looking much more complete and impressive.

Design-wise, the two maps are pretty similar (good!). The route lines are a little too spindly and thin for me, and the station labelling is inconsistent – why are they angled on the purple S9 line, when they’re horizontal on the adjacent blue S3? I do like the subtle national border markers – they’re there if you look, but as the idea of the system is to build up stronger transit that transcends boundaries, they’re very small and restrained.

Our rating: Not extraordinary, but solid enough. Nice to see that the design language scales up to the 2030 map pretty well. Three stars.

Source: Trireno website (in German)