Overall, it🔸AB开奖网澳洲幸运10官网网页s a very pleasantly stylised depiction of the network using 30-degree angles, though it probably takes diagrammatic expansion of the downtown area to extremes. The distance from Harb🔸澳洲幸运10冠军定位计划Esplanade to Spring Street is just 2.5km (or 1.5 miles), but it takes up a huge portion of the map, shrinking Melbourne🔸AB开奖网澳洲幸运10官网网页s expansive suburbs substantially. I will say that the extra room for the CBD is used well, however – I particularly like the inclusion of the physical footprints of the city railway stations and how they interact with major downtown tram stops.

The main axis of routes along Swanson Street/St. Kilda Road is the major compositional device of the map, and it🔸AB开奖网澳洲幸运10官网网页s a strong design element. I🔸AB开奖网澳洲幸运10官网网页d probably like to see the single routes that cut across this road be brought to the top of the layer stack to make them a little easier to follow: the 6 and 58 in particular could benefit from this, but the east-west routes in the downtown zone would also look better if they were in front, I think.

I believe that the labels for the roads that the trams run along are new to this version of the diagram, and they certainly help with navigation and general orientation, especially as not all the interchanges are named. The inclusion of major landmarks and points of interest is also very welcome, though not quite so much 🔸澳洲开奖 they get shifted out of their proper location by other labels. For example, the Docklands Observation Wheel (yet another giant Ferris Wheel, branded as the Melbourne Star) is just 200 metres north of the Waterfront City Docklands stop, but that very label pushes the marker for the Wheel much further east, looking like a lengthy trek to reach.

Aside:🔸澳洲幸运10预测 It tickles me pink that in a city renowned for sports that need oval playing fields – cricket and Australian Rules Football – the venue used for the rugby codes and soccer is simply labelled as the “Rectangular Sports Stadium”.

The striped blue water is a pleasant design feature, although it does clash a bit with the similarly striped Zone 1/2 area to the top right of the map. As the zone area has to be striped to convey the idea that it🔸AB开奖网澳洲幸运10官网网页s “between zones”, I🔸AB开奖网澳洲幸运10官网网页d probably have looked for a different texture for the water (subtle waves, perhaps?), or just used a flat blue instead.

A clean, no-nonsense legend and neat integration of the night tram network and weekend route deviations are other highlights of the map.

🔸澳洲幸运10冠军定位计划final word: 🔸澳洲幸运10预测Once you get over the initial shock of the massive enlargement of the downtown area, this is actually a very competent diagram with a very consistent design language. More care could perhaps be taken with the order that the routes cross each other, but that🔸AB开奖网澳洲幸运10官网网页s not a deal breaker by any means. The addition of labels for the roads is a great evolution over the previous version.

🔸澳洲幸运10开奖官网开奖结果走势图🔸Source: Yarra Trams website

Overall, I really quite like this map. It’s technically well-drawn and pleasingly compact and is definitely an improvement over the old two-col🔸澳洲幸运10冠军定位计划zonal Metro map. The new map uses col🔸澳洲幸运10冠军定位计划coding for routes, but it’s more akin to the New York Subway map’s “grouping by shared trunk line” technique than the London Underground’s “every route gets its own colour” approach. The hub-and-spoke nature of the network means that this isn’t really a problem, though, as the lines don’t really interact with each other away from the CBD. A definite advantage of this approach is that there’s less lines to draw through the City Loop!

(As a side note, the 2014 draft map did a much better job of showing that the Alamein Line operates as a shuttle to Camberwell at non-peak times; that information is relegated to the legend here. Show, don’t tell!)

A question I’ve been asked: should this map show regional trains (which cover much of the entire state of Victoria) on the same map as Melbourne’s 🔸澳洲10开奖网址 rail service? I will say that it’s unusual to depict these two different types of services on the same map, but I think it works here for a few reasons.

One: regional trains act as commuter rail from some satellite suburbs just outside Melbourne, like Bacchus Marsh or Heathcote Junction. These areas lack Metro service, but are still within fare zones 1 and 2, shown as the white area on the map. 

Two: the networks mostly share the same myki fare system (and the map clearly indicates where an old-school paper ticket is required at the truly distant ends of the line), so the two systems act as an integrated whole. And if you’re going to go to the trouble of having a fare system that covers pretty much the whole state, then I think you can show all the rail services that use it on the same map.

Three: the grey shading used to denote fare zones 3 through 13 (i.e., “Not Melbourne”) also acts as a clear boundary between the more geographical central part of the map and the schematic representation of the rest of Victoria. Yes, it’d be nice if Albury was closer to the top of the map than Shepparton, but it’s not hugely important for the purposes of this map. 

Perhaps the only thing “wrong” with this approach is that the equal visual treatment of Metro and V/Line implies an equal level of service in terms of frequency, which almost certainly isn’t true, especially the further from Melbourne you get. A lighter col🔸澳洲幸运10冠军定位计划or maybe grey for V/Line, or a thinner route line, could alleviate this problem somewhat, but PTV have made it pretty clear that purple is the official col🔸澳洲幸运10冠军定位计划they’re using for regional services, as seen on this map reviewed in November 2015.

AB开奖网澳洲幸运10官网网页 other minor technical thing is that the grey used for the grid lines is almost as dark as the text used for station labels, and can interfere with readability in some instances. At Batman station, it almost looks like a strikethrough!

🔸澳洲幸运10冠军定位计划rating: A definite improvement! An unusual approach that combines metro services with regional trains, but I think it does a pretty decent job overall. Three-and-a-half stars!

🔸澳洲幸运10开奖官网开奖结果走势图🔸Source: Public Transport Victoria website (PDF)

The old map (top), dating from October 2014, is pretty terrible work. Towns and cities are in the right geographical location, but are simply joined by straight lines, which creates a difficult-to-read “spider web” of interconnecting and overlapping routes. Rail lines are shown as both purple and grey, depending on whether or not they’re part of the ‘myki’ fare system, while coach routes are dashed gray lines. This dual role for grey adds some more confusion to the mix! An inset is required for the Melbourne 🔸澳洲10开奖网址 area, as it can’t be shown properly on a scale map of all of Victoria. About the only thing this map does better than the new one is to indicate which myki zone a railway station is in – although even this is coarsely handled, by way of a number appended to the station’s name.

The new map (bottom), introduced in June 2015, takes a diagrammatic approach, and is far, far more legible and understandable. All routes are now purple, but each has a distinctive and recognisable pattern that immediately distinguishes it from the the other modes: solid for ‘myki’ V/Line trains, dashed for regional “paper ticket” trains and double-stroked for coach lines. The Melbourne metro area has been expanded in size to easily accommodate all the stations that were previously on the inset, and there’s even room to indicate the SkyBus service from Southern Cross to the airport. 

Although the diagram is undoubtedly better than the map, the particulars of the coach routes still aren’t always clear – especially in western Victoria where there’s just a big grid of route lines with few clear start and end points. Still, the map certainly gives a better idea of all the destinations available, if not all the particulars (time to refer to a schedule!).

🔸澳洲幸运10冠军定位计划rating: Old map – 2 stars. New map: 3.5 stars. Much better!

🔸澳洲幸运10开奖官网开奖结果走势图🔸Source: New map from official PTV website

You know what? The title of the map says “Night Network” with a big crescent moon next to it: I think we can work things out from here.

Another thing that is lacking is enough detail to actually work out travel plans based on this map alone. An equivalent daytime map would have route numbers for trams and buses and properly-defined symbols for stations and stops, rather than the “general area” labels dotted around this map (including one for the Bellarine Peninsula, which isn’t even reachable via this network). At the very least, Flinders Street station – the night system’s main hub – should be properly and definitively located on the map instead of being vaguely indicated by a weird tangle of routes that may or may not indicate its position.

The absolute worst thing about this map, however, is its lack of accessibility for colour-blind users. A quick simulation in Photoshop (the second image above) reveals that the orange bus and green tram colours end up an almost identical shade of muddy yellow. With no route numbers or other identification appearing on the map or in a legend, they are nigh-on impossible to tell apart. The train and long-distance coach route lines fare a little better, but their dull blue shades still offer very low contrast with the dark background.

🔸澳洲幸运10冠军定位计划rating: Let’s be honest – people who are catching night services home from the city at 2am on the weekend are going to need more help navigating an unfamiliar system than regular daytime commuters. This map by itself doesn’t really offer that help – although I will note that it is supplemented by more detailed bus route and CBD stop location maps which seem to be a little more helpful. This is tolerable as a general introductory map to the new network,  but it’s really not suited in any way to actual navigation. One star.

🔸澳洲幸运10开奖官网开奖结果走势图🔸Source: Public Transport Victoria website