There's a new tube map out. It's only five months since the last issue, but there have been a few significant changes to the network since October so a new map is called for. The pocket-sized edition is now pick-up-able in tube stations, and you'll recognise it from the black and white picture of a medieval guitarist on the front cover. Goodness knows what a 'Troubadour Carrying a Cytiole' has to do with London or the tube, but this is 'Art' so that doesn't matter. Alternatively you can scrutinise the new map via the TfL website, should you be so inclined.
To save you the effort, I've had a quick look at the new tube map to see what's changed since last time. Here's what's new...
• Blackfriars: Of course. The underground station closed earlier this week until the end of 2011, so the map now shows that the station is closed. But it shows this in a mighty cumbersome way. The station's name has been crossed out with a thin red line, but it's rather faint and hard to spot. There's some incredibly small explanatory text, which is approximately font size 3 on the pocket version and therefore unreadable to anyone with less than perfect vision. The text announces that Blackfriars underground station is closed from March 2009 until 2011. Given that this map wasn't available before March 2009, the phrase "from March 2009" is completely superfluous. The interchange symbol remains undeleted, even though this won't be an interchange station for the next 30 months. There are rail, boat and aeroplane symbols pictured alongside the station, all now irrelevant to tube passengers because you can't get a tube train to Blackfriars any more. There's also a small dagger, which alerts travellers to read the explanatory note posted alongside the map. This note states that "Blackfriars Underground station is closed until late 2011", which is no more information than already appears on the map itself. Pointless. In summary, Blackfriars station is depicted as a confusing illegible irrelevant mess. Good start.
• Tower Gateway: This DLR terminus was reopenedon Monday after several months of major refit. This is good news, not just for commuters but also because a slew of additional text, strikethroughs and daggers have now been removed from the map. Double hurrah.
• Woolwich Arsenal: More hurrahs. This DLR station opened back in January, so it's now shown on the map as open instead of "opening early January 2009". This should remove the previously ridiculous situation where the tube maps at Woolwich Arsenal showed the station as not yet open. One further small change - the line beneath the Thames from King George V to Woolwich Arsenal has been simplified to a straight line rather than a westward curve. This is less geographically accurate, but since when was the tube map ever geographically accurate?
• Imperial Wharf: New station alert! Appearing for the first time on the tube map is a brand new Overground station-to-be, located on the West London Line near Chelsea Harbour. Imperial Wharf has appeared on rail maps before, however, most notoriously on the London Connections map in 2004 which promised that the station would open in "summer 2005". The final opening's only four and a half years late, but it's taken this long to secure funding and finally begin construction. In the meantime, residents of Chelsea Harbour continue to keep the London taxi industry afloat almost single-handed.
• Victoria line: All those nightmare after-10pm weeknight shutdowns are now a thing of the past, so TfL have kindly removed the ugly blue textbox located approximately on top of Brockwell Park. Now only four ugly textboxes remain.
• Roding Valley: Woo-hoo! TfL in step-free access victory! Another station has been labelled with a big blue blob, reflecting the fact that wheelchair users now have one more station they can travel to. Sounds like a triumph, doesn't it? Except for one thing. Roding Valley is the least used station on the entire underground network. It serves an average of only 500 passengers a day (that's 250 in and 250 out). In which case, I wonder how many additional passengers will choose to use this station now that it's step free? Ridiculously few, if any, I bet. All that public money spent, and almost nobody will benefit. But it adds one to TfL's step-free total, for what it's worth.
That's all I've spotted which is new. There's plenty more that's ugly, but all of this was there before. And don't expect another tube map update before December, because nothing else on the network (so far as I know) is due to get tweaked or changed until then.
• Blackfriars: Of course. The underground station closed earlier this week until the end of 2011, so the map now shows that the station is closed. But it shows this in a mighty cumbersome way. The station's name has been crossed out with a thin red line, but it's rather faint and hard to spot. There's some incredibly small explanatory text, which is approximately font size 3 on the pocket version and therefore unreadable to anyone with less than perfect vision. The text announces that Blackfriars underground station is closed from March 2009 until 2011. Given that this map wasn't available before March 2009, the phrase "from March 2009" is completely superfluous. The interchange symbol remains undeleted, even though this won't be an interchange station for the next 30 months. There are rail, boat and aeroplane symbols pictured alongside the station, all now irrelevant to tube passengers because you can't get a tube train to Blackfriars any more. There's also a small dagger, which alerts travellers to read the explanatory note posted alongside the map. This note states that "Blackfriars Underground station is closed until late 2011", which is no more information than already appears on the map itself. Pointless. In summary, Blackfriars station is depicted as a confusing illegible irrelevant mess. Good start.
• Imperial Wharf: New station alert! Appearing for the first time on the tube map is a brand new Overground station-to-be, located on the West London Line near Chelsea Harbour. Imperial Wharf has appeared on rail maps before, however, most notoriously on the London Connections map in 2004 which promised that the station would open in "summer 2005". The final opening's only four and a half years late, but it's taken this long to secure funding and finally begin construction. In the meantime, residents of Chelsea Harbour continue to keep the London taxi industry afloat almost single-handed.
• Roding Valley: Woo-hoo! TfL in step-free access victory! Another station has been labelled with a big blue blob, reflecting the fact that wheelchair users now have one more station they can travel to. Sounds like a triumph, doesn't it? Except for one thing. Roding Valley is the least used station on the entire underground network. It serves an average of only 500 passengers a day (that's 250 in and 250 out). In which case, I wonder how many additional passengers will choose to use this station now that it's step free? Ridiculously few, if any, I bet. All that public money spent, and almost nobody will benefit. But it adds one to TfL's step-free total, for what it's worth.
