u/cliko

GEOGRAPHICAL MAP WITH STOP NAMES & LOCATIONS

This map is in the same universe as my fantasy rail map, and is a sequel to my minimal fantasy tram map.

Route aims:

• Fill in "missing links" between tram termini and nearby train stations
• Straighten out routes
• No routes turn *within* the Hoddle Grid - helps tourists know that wherever they get on, the tram will go in a straight line until it reaches the edge of the grid
• More orbital routes, e.g. routes 13, 64, 73,
• Provide connections to SRL stations and new/future activity centres
  • e.g. Moorabbin, Bennettswood, Box Hill, Heidelberg, Bundoora

Stop aims: (see geographical map)

• Reduction in stops
  • Speed up travel, and make rebuilding them as accessible more achievable
  • Around every 400 m, but closer if the line parallels a rail line
• Unique names for stops
  • Avoiding naming stops after the street they cross. Fewer stops means they can act more like landmarks, so unique names are important. Stops at the same intersection but on different routes are given the same stop to emphasise transfer capabilty

Design aims:

• Retain existing route numbers and colours
  • I've always wanted to design a new route numbering/naming system for Melbourne's trams that makes more sense. But keeping existing routes the same makes it easier for gunzel gawking
• Make new route colours distinct from existing routes, but still sorta fit in
  • Got Claude to algorithmically find new colours that maximise ΔE, but are still within the existing range for luminosity and chroma. Manually filtered out ones that were still too visually similar or ugly
• Retro vibes
  • The Met logo, mode roundels with vintage vehicles, and a big fat font, to give it a bit of personality while keeping it clean

Things I think could be improved:

• Design
  • Dark mode is impractical for printing and accessibility, but I think it's pretty and it matches my rail map so fuck it
  • Route 83's colour is pretty dark and ugly, but it's in the Western suburbs so that's okay
  • Route 85's colour is pretty similar to the Frankston line, but the same could be said about 5/Clifton Hill, 86/Northern, 70/Sandringham. The contexts are pretty different and eliminating those colours would rule out like every colour.
  • I've rerouted the Eastern Busway so that once it leaves the freeway, it heads along Alexandra Pde, then down Royal Parade to Melbourne Central along the tram lanes. Bus priority along Hoddle St is apparently too hard, so sharing with tram tracks felt sensible. If I did this map again, I think I might include it as part of the map, seeing as it shares the right-of-way and has a similar level of service to trams.
  • Elsternwick/Ripponlea area is cramped.
  • I've always thought that the tram map should show rail lines in the background (someone posted an example in this sub once - can anyone find it?). Didn't really have a way to fit them in easily in this one though.
  • I don't think it's as pretty as my rail map, but what are you gonna do
• Routes
  • The West is still pretty sparse, but I feel I did alright
  • The 75 extension to Upper Ferntree Gully is probably too steep to be realistic

...blue?! Like, I get that they probably wanted it to be visually distinct from Mars, which is already very warm coloured. But we literally have pictures from the surface of Titan, and it's yellow.

https://i.imgur.com/yIguf0Y.jpeg

I'm fine with them showing Saturn's rings from Titan's orbit even though they should appear as a very thin line. I get it. It looks cooler. And I get why they don't accurately portray gravity all the time - that would be really hard.

But Titan is yellow. The best part of FAMK for me is how it could be real, if you squint. The premise is just "what if this very real Russian guy didn't die exactly when he did". One day, we could have hotels in space and miners on asteroids and Ed Baldwins on Mars and we might even >!find life on other worlds!<

But Titan is never gonna be blue. Cause it's friggen yellow

High-res PDF version

I've been working on this on-and-off for years, and it's finally at a point where I don't have any changes I actively want to make to it.

Aims:

• Include more orbital routes
• Seperate routes for regional trains so they don't get held up by suburban trains
• Not changing anything that's already a "done deal" (e.g. the route of SRL, no South Yarra station on the Metro Tunnel)
• No high-speed rail because we're not Newcastle so it'll never happen

Things I like:

• I think it's pretty
• While it's super unrealistic, I think each individual proposal could be achieved if that area happened to be important for an election or something
• Getting each major route to start with a different letter is pretty silly, but I feel pretty clever about it lol

Things I don't like:

• It's definitely not colour-blind friendly
• I like that I only used two angles for text, but just one would be better
• It's not super clear at stations like Goornong and Warrenheip that country trains don't stop there
• Skytrams and subway routes look quite similar on the map
• Having regional trains from the east do that big loop would still be faster than sharing tracks with Dandenong trains, but it's very indirect
• The Flinders Street viaduct only has trains 34 per hour during peak, which is well within capacity. But four lines over 3 track pairs means those lines still interact with each other.
• I did include stuff for the West, but probably not enough - but it's hard to when a lot of the development hasn't happened yet