Plan of the subway of London

Tube map (plane of the tube) is the name commonly used to indicate the diagrammatic diagram which represents the lines, stations, and the zones of the Métro of London, called London Underground , or Tube .

It is about a diagrammatic plane rather than a chart, without geographical representation but rather of the relations; that leads to an important distortion of the real position of the layouts of the lines and position of the stations, but corresponds to the exact order of the station and the correspondences with various the other lines of the network, as well as the distribution according to the zones. The basic concepts, particularly that which consists of a topological representation rather than geographical, were largely taken again for plans of lines a little everywhere in the world. The example of the plan of the subway of London east often quoted in the introductions to the Topology because it makes it possible to intuitively include/understand specificities of this discipline.

Although the current plan is available on the site of Transport for London, it cannot be presented in an article of Wikipédia for reason of copyright.

Development

The original plan (here on the site of TfL) was conceived in 1931 by an employee of London Transport, Harry Beck. This one carried out that, as the subway is primarily underground, the plan with the real situations of the stations was not relevant for the traveller who wanted to go from a station to another; only the configuration of the network was important. This approach is close to that of the electric diagrams; although those did not inspire Beck for its diagrammatic plan, his/her colleagues raised the similarity and it even produced a humorous plan where the stations were replaced by electric symbols and the names by terms approaching some: " Bakelite " for " Bakerloo ", etc In fact, Beck based its diagram on those of the sewerage systems.

For this purpose, Beck drew an extremely simplified plan, including/understanding only the stations with their name, and of the segments of right-hand sides connecting them; and even the the Thames went vertically, horizontally or with 45 degrees.

At the beginning, London Transport was skeptic with respect to this proposal; it was a not ordered proposal, carried out over its spare time; it was presented to the public in an experimental way in a small booklet, and at once become popular. The plan is used through all the Métro of London, as well posted today in large sizes as in plans of pocket.

Today

The drawing is so known today that it immediately makes it possible to identify the subway of London; it was represented on Tee-shirts, postcards, and other memories; a man has even the whole plan of zone 1 tattooed on his back, with the names of the stations (see the bonds below).

With the Tate Modern is opens it named The Great Bear of Simon Patterson, a subtle parody of the original work of Harry Beck, in which the names of station were replaced by those of famous historical characters. The Tate Gallery by Tube (1986) of David Booth is an advertizing poster for the Métro of London, which represents the underground lines in the form of painting leaving tubes on which one supported, forming the plan of the network.

Several changes were brought to the concept with the passing of years. In particular, the problem of the representation of the stations in correspondence with the network of surface solved forever to the satisfaction of Beck. In the same way the colors used for the lines or the companies have exchange during the years. The plan was removed its hands towards the end of its career.

Despite everything, the last evolutions skilfully integrated the evolutions of the network, like the Jubilee Line Extension (prolongation of the Jubilee Line, while remaining in the principles of origin of Beck.

A copy of the original plan of Beck is posted on the quay direction Morden of the Northern Line at its station, Finchley Central.

Many of other grid systems uses diagrammatic plans to represent their lines, the plans are undoubtedly inspired of that Beck. The operator of bus First Group uses a system of colors for his lines of bus, such as " line rouge" , " line bleue" , etc, collectively called " Overground " (in opposition to Underground , the subway).

Technical sides

The originators of the Tube Map approached a large variety of problems while representing useful informations as clearly as possible, through the years. They sometimes adopted different solutions.

Colors of the lines

Table below watch evolution of the colors used since the foreground of Beck. In fact, certain colors were used for the same line since the beginning. The foregrounds were limited by the number of distinct colors available to the impression. It is less one problem today and the plan faced the addition of new lines without much difficulty.

Each color of line can be adapted to indicate a limited service, in the form of chopped line (intervals of color, separated from white surrounded of the color). That does not function very well with the lines of Network Rail, which are white with only one black entourage. The lines in construction are represented in dotted line, often accompanied by a text to avoid confusion with the open lines in limited service.

Stations

The most important development made by Beck on its `' Map Tube'' was the use of the tick mark (an indent) to indicate the stations. That makes it possible to place the stations closer from/to each other while keeping the clearness of the plan, because the indent points only one side of the line towards the good name of station (ideally placed at the center, although the provision of the lines always does not allow it).

Moreover, since the beginning, the stations of correspondences received a particular symbol to show their importance, even if the form with changed during the years. Moreover, since 1960, of the symbols were use to identify the stations offering of good correspondences with the network of broad outlines (today property of Network Rail). The following forms were used:

empty circle (for each line or station when it is possible) - standard representation
empty circle (for each station) - plane experimental of 1938
empty diamond (for each line) - plane of the beginning of the year 1930
square vacuum - station of correspondence with the broad outlines on the plans of 1960 to 1964
circle with a point inside - station of correspondence with the broad outlines on the plans of 1964 to 1970

Since 1970, the plan used the logo of British Rail recently invented, with the double arrows, printed beside the name of the station, to indicate the correspondences broad outlines. Where the station broad outlines has a name different from that of the subway station, this one is written (since 1977) within a framework.

Certain correspondences are more practical than others and the originators of the plan continuously adapted the presentation of the plan to try to indicate where the correspondences are more complicated, for example by drawing aside the circles and by binding them with fine black features. Sometimes despite everything, the need for simplicity carries it on this goal. The correspondence between the Bakerloo Line and the Northern Line with Charing Cross is not for example not very practical, it is better to change with Embankment. In fact the need to simplify the plan in the central zone of London implies to represent a correspondence which seems easiest with Charing Cross.

Lines and services

The Tube Map aims at making the network, complicated with many services, easy to include/understand. But there are times where it would be useful to have more information on the services exploited on each line.

The District Line is the traditional example; it is represented like only one line on the plan, but includes/understands at the same time the principal route between Upminster and Ealing/Richmond/Wimbledon, the service between Edgware Road and Wimbledon, and the shuttle between High Street Kensington and Olympia. The plan almost never has, with the length of its history, distinguished these services, which can cause nuisance for a little accustomed user. Recent plans tried to regulate this problem by separating the various services with Earl' S Court.

The limited services were sometimes represented by chopped lines (see above), with some complications added to the plan to show the services of rush hours in the branches, such as that of Chesham on the Metropolitan Line.

Lines other than the subway

The plan of the Tube was conceived to help people to move in the subway; but the question arose of knowing if it were to play a broader part, i.e. to help people to move in London. Thus, the question became: " which lines to make be reproduced on the plan, in particular those serving the central part of the London area. London Underground resisted much, and there exists a particular plan with the railway lines in of correspondence, in complement in the plan of the subway; progressively, certain lines out-subway appeared on the plan of the subway.

North London Line - this line, exploited of Richmond with North Woolwich (at the origin until Broad Street) is a radial line which offers practical correspondences to avoid passing by the center of London. Pourant, the frequencies are much weaker than on the subway, and much of stations are not connected directly to the subway or the stations of broad outlines.
Northern City Line - this line made in the beginning left the subway, but was transferred to British Rail in 1976 for the suburban service which served Kings Cross.
Thameslink - this line was reopened in 1988. It makes it possible to discharge Northern Line with correspondences broad outlines in Kings Cross St Pancras and London Bridge.
Waterloo and City Line - exception, because it was the only line of the type Tube not exploited by London Underground but by a company of broad outlines; this line appeared on almost all the plans of subway (except the first specimens of Beck). In 1994, it was taken again by London Underground and took its current color (see above).
Docklands Light Railway - the system of light automatic train of the Docklands , the district of the Docks of London.

Currently, the only lines other than those of the subway which are represented are the Docklands Light Railway and North London Line.

See too

Books

Ken Garland, Mr. Beck' S Underground Map (Capital Transport, 1994): ISBN 1854141686
Ovenden Mark, Subway Maps Off The World (Capital Transport, 2005): ISBN 1854142887
Maxwell Roberts, Underground Maps After Beck (Capital Transport, 2005): ISBN 1854142860
Andrew Dow, Telling the Passenger where to get off (Capital Transport, 2005): ISBN 1854142917

External bonds

Site of Transport for London :

the page of the plans
the history of the plan
Plan historical and geographical interactive of Zone 1 (Macromedia Flash requires)
has what could resemble the plan in 2016 (pdf file), with the trams.

Other sites:

H2G2 an article on the plan of the '' Tube ''
Trivia, history and facts one the London Underground off Tubes map contains more history one the tube map alternate designs the map from Dr. Who Conventions and Simon Patterson' S The Great Bear
Plus on Harry Beck
The London Tube Map Archive: all plans, showing the extension of the network and the evolution of the graphic style
Mapper' S Delight - All kinds of variations around the plan of the subway and others infos
Robert Reynolds Subway Page - Bond set photographs of many plans of subways of the whole world, inspired much by the proncipes of Beck

Random links: