Submitted by Edward Russell, whose photo of this map in situ can be seen here. Edward says:

Virginia Railway Express (VRE) updated their map with the addition of the Spotsylvania station on the Fredericksburg (red) line in November. It’s much cleaner than their former map, which included the numerous meanders on the lines and lacked clean 90-degree or 45-degree angles.

The new map is just straight lines with a clean 45-degree split where the Manassas (blue) line breaks off from the Fredericksburg line. I’d say it is a solid map for a simple system.

Transit Maps says:

“Solid” is a good word to describe this effort – it gets the job done: no more, no less. The routes are kept as simple as possible, the type (Gill Sans, deployed nicely) is clean as easy to read, and there’s an easy to comprehend legend.

Personally, I find the treatment of the Potomac a little uneven and wobbly. There are better ways to draw rivers in Illustrator than to make a path for each bank separately, such as drawing a single, central path and then using the Width tool or a width profile to make the path get evenly and gradually wider from one end of the path to the other.

I’m also not really thrilled with the way that the District Diamond has been laid on its side. It’s probably meant to reflect that the alignment of the Fredricksburg Line isn’t truly north-south, but it just looks odd on an otherwise diagrammatic map to rotate the diamond in an effort to match “reality” so closely.

Also of interest is the appropriation of the Washington DC Metro’s famous “target” interchange symbols for stations that are shared between the two VRE lines. Association by imitation?

Our rating: Unremarkable in many ways, but an improvement on what came before. Two-and-a-half stars.

Source: Official VRE website