please empty your brain below
Needs a dark mode ;)

Entertained | 25.03.23 - 7:31 a.m. | #

Needs rainbow colours for the zones

dg writes: see 1999 link.

Andy Riley | 25.03.23 - 7:41 a.m. | #

I've mentioned it before but I still think Jug Cerovic has done an incredible job updating the map.

The accessibility blobs are massive overkill, got to be a better way. Cerovic ignores them but I'm not sure this could be done.

E | 25.03.23 - 8:11 a.m. | #

Such simpler times.

Rod | 25.03.23 - 8:22 a.m. | #

The current pocket map needs to a bigger format, where details can actually be read by normal humans, or cut back to "essentials".

Alex McKenna | 25.03.23 - 8:28 a.m. | #

Beck did do a draft version which included main line services, plus under instruction from London Transport he was forced to create some fairly awful maps. Paul E. Garbutt got things back on track.

Notice how much interference took place once TfL took over, although the GLC went all activity in 1977.

Wheelchair blobs and fare zones are the worst additions, and the 'within walking distance' are the most useful/least helpful additions as you're left to fend for yourself at street level.

Still Anon | 25.03.23 - 8:29 a.m. | #

We need to know which tubes operate all night.

coffin dodger | 25.03.23 - 8:34 a.m. | #

Agree it needs to be bigger to be legible to ordinary mortals

Keith | 25.03.23 - 8:39 a.m. | #

The current TfL map has become quite a mess over the last 90 years. I wonder if a map of the modern network in the simple style of the 1933 map might be useful.

I've just taken a look at the Jug Cerovic map. It's certainly clearer than the TfL map, but maybe not as accurate - he has the Barking Riverside extension running from Upminster.

Alan S | 25.03.23 - 8:50 a.m. | #

Not sure what it'll do for the map, but splitting out the Overground seems like a good and overdue idea. It is not one giant line any more than the tubes, so needs splitting out for the same reason underground lines are.

Will | 25.03.23 - 9:37 a.m. | #

Apparently £4m has been set aside in the TfL budget for the naming of the 6 Overground lines. Can they not just…

dg interrupts: we did 'What will the Mayor call the Overground lines?' back in April 2021, thanks.

RobbyM | 25.03.23 - 10:30 a.m. | #

Perhaps it needs converting to an atlas.

Tony Moore | 25.03.23 - 10:32 a.m. | #

A lot of tube stations now lack the pocket maps. Phasing them out should solve the problem that too much is being squeezed on to be legible in the current format!

I hope TfL never goes down that road.

The small map format isn't helped by the printing quality which seems to have gone downhill over the years.

Matthieu | 25.03.23 - 11:14 a.m. | #

Difficult to say when exactly they jumped the shark, but fair to say there is now (at least) a generation of young adults who have grown up without a tube map being obscured with irrelevant clutter or information that would better be provided elsewhere

Dominic H | 25.03.23 - 11:28 a.m. | #

We will soon be at the point (if not there already) when it would be less intrusive to show a non-step-free station rather than as now. Fewer blobs.

Tim W. | 25.03.23 - 2:43 p.m. | #

I don't get all the hate for the Wheelchair blobs. They make not look great, but they are absolutely essential for the mobility challenged. I've yet to see a better station accessibility indicator design.

Long Branch Mike | Homepage | 25.03.23 - 3:00 p.m. | #

The pocket map could be bigger and smaller at the same time if it was printed as a "Z-fold".

This and thinner paper would allow the map to be held inside the travel wallet, or even have a combined wallet which has a pocket for the oyster card on one of the covers of the z-fold.

MilesT | 25.03.23 - 4:24 p.m. | #

1933: You know what this map needs on it? Watford! Twice!

It's always had plenty of irrelevant clutter.

Graham | 25.03.23 - 5:14 p.m. | #

Of interest is the 2021 tube map that could have been. I believe it was updated for 2025 too.

E | 25.03.23 - 5:39 p.m. | #

It might be unpopular to say this, but most travellers don't need all the mobility blobs. It ought to be possible to provide versions of the map with and without, particularly in electronic form.

ActonMan | 25.03.23 - 6:32 p.m. | #

Interesting point by Dominic H. When I was a newcomer to London, in 1973, I used a paper tube map constantly -- even though I lived and worked in tubeless SE London.

When I lived in Brixton from 1976 onwards I had a tube map on my wall with times of last connecting trains added, from places such as Highbury & Islington, Angel and Covent Garden.nOW,

Now, decades later, it's mostly in my head. When my brain fails, I look at the TfL app on my phone. I can't remember when I last picked up a paper map, or even looked at one on a platform.

AlanBG | 25.03.23 - 8:18 p.m. | #

I picked up a paper map and looked at the map on a platform this very afternoon, so let's not wish them away just because some people don't use them.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 25.03.23 - 8:22 p.m. | #

The TfL Go app doesn't show the step-free blobs and instead the map has a step-free mode. It works quite well in my opinion. Much clearer especially if you need a journey which requires an interchange, makes it clear where it is possible and where it isn't.

Matthieu | 25.03.23 - 9:08 p.m. | #

Step free access applies to many (not exclusive to wheelchair users). Kids would be one (not all kids or parents want to use escalators), but also those with luggage, and minor walking difficulties. These groups might not be aware, it this facility is hidden under “accessibility”.

Mike Jones | 26.03.23 - 2:02 p.m. | #

Thank you to Diamond Geezer for such an entertaining article in the first place.

And I'm still of the view that TfL shouldn't be allowed to include the LO on the Tube map unless it also includes suburban railways provided by other operators. The fastest way from Finsbury Park to Moorgate is by direct train but you wouldn't know that from looking at the tube map.

Peter Williams | 26.03.23 - 9:30 p.m. | #

The 1999 "rainbow" map must have hung around at stations for a lot longer than it did in the pocket map. I can distinctly remember it, despite not moving to London until late 2002.

Chz | 27.03.23 - 9:21 a.m. | #

To be honest I've never agreed with your "simpler is better" view of maps. They are there to impart information. Of course they should look good and be useable too.

Ian Brooker | 28.03.23 - 5:53 p.m. | #











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