Submitted by Lyle Read-Challen, who says:
This is the official rail map of the West Yorkshire area, a conurbation in the north of England. Despite the name “Metro” it is really just a collection of commuter lines centred around Leeds station.
It’s not particularly beautiful or interesting to look at, but it does the job. The “lines” system works better here than on many commuter systems, which tend to be all one colour. The station spacing is nice and even, and though they might look overpowering, the system logo works well at indicating which stations are actually within West Yorkshire.
I’d be interested in hearing what you think of it!
Transit Maps says:
Overall, this is a very solid rail map, executed in a classic British style: the black bars across the route lines for stations puts me very much in mind of this classic British Rail Greater London map from 1965 (May 2012, 4.5 stars). I don’t mind the use of the “M” logo for certain stations, as it serves a very definite informational purpose on the map. If anything, I would have liked to see the “6″ and “7″ station dots presented in another colour to help differentiate them from the “M” symbols a little better.
Speaking of colour, the background zones are a little too bright for my tastes, but it’s only really a problem when the purple Zone 3 interacts with the light blue Pontefract Line – they’re quite tonally similar and the contrast between them is way too low. I also think the black zone borders are quite heavy-handed and believe that a thin white border would separate them just as well, and also lend a lighter feel to the map as a whole.
There’s only one glaring error that I can see: the orange Huddersfield Line disappears behind the blue Zone 1 area instead of continuing to its terminus at Leeds. Use layers in Illustrator to keep elements like this where they should be!
Side note: the old-school tram silhouette to indicate light rail connections at various stations is kind of adorable, if not exactly an accurate reflection of modern LRVs.
Our rating: As Lyle says, gets the job done with a minimum of fuss. Neat and legible, if not particularly memorable. Three stars.
Source: West Yorkshire Metro website – link no longer active
How do I buy one. My 4 year old son is obsessed by this poster.
There’s other problems with this map. The lines are historic, even though some services don’t stick to them. It’s not clear there’s an hourly service from Leeds, through Dewsbury, Brighouse to Leeds or an occasional service (4 a day) from Bradford Interchange to Brighouse, Wakefield and Pontefract (then Doncaster to London).
Nor is it obvious that most services on the left of the map from Halifax and Huddersfield continue past Leeds to Hull or York