Re: New Melbourne fares brochure

["Mike Alexander" <malex@bigfoot.com>]

Of course Chris has every right to criticise the inadequate maps produced by
every one of the privatised company. For those of you who haven't seen it,
his excellent map is at
http://people.enternet.com.au/~cbrnbill/maps/melbourn.htm

I'll also throw in a little advertisement for my own (slightly less
detailed) map at http://www.alphalink.com.au/~mikeya/mike/images/metmap.gif

I would suggest (with a slight bias, of course :-) that both of these maps
are far better than any of the official ones.

Why the privatised companies with their buckets of money can't seem to
produce a decent map, is beyond me. And, as Vaughan says, the current trend
to produce a map that shows only that company's section of the network is
deplorable.


Best Regards,

Mike Alexander
(malex@bigfoot.com)

"Vaughan Williams" <ender2000@my-deja.com> wrote in message
8jnvrk$2bn$1@nnrp1.deja.com">news:8jnvrk$2bn$1@nnrp1.deja.com...
> I haven't seen the map, but if its anything like the ones on those grey
> Yarra Trams, (and from your description it is) then they are much worse
> than the old maps they replaced. They don't show any concept of
> direction - for example, while the map of the #86 indicates that it
> runs along Smith and High Sts, it doesn't seem to grasp that the tram
> turns right into Gertrude, left into Smith, right into Queens Pde etc,
> but just shows the route as if it runs along one long continuous
> street. THe connections shown imply that it runs perpendicular to the
> Epping line (actually, they seem to suggest that either the #86 crosses
> several rail lines or the Epping line keeps bending back to cross the
> $86 at right angles all the time) when in fact they are parrallel and
> it is probably a stretch to call it a connection at any of the stations
> (theres about 1-200 metres of physical separation and no signage).
>
> The old maps they replaced were much more detailed and accurate,
> showing the tram routes as well as a number of other things - and most
> importantly making some effort to treat the metro-wide system as
> exactly that.
>
> Yet another casulty on the integration front.
>
> By the way, can anyone find a complete map of the melbourne rail
> network on the net these days? And I don't mean one that some helpful
> person has put together or scanned from the melway on their own
> initiative - I mean one provided by the public authority and/or private
> operator.
>
> Vaughan
>
> In article <395E0414.5A54C405@enternet.com.au>,
>   Chris Brownbill <cbrnbill@enternet.com.au> wrote:
> > The new fares brochure for Melbourne contains a redesigned map of the
> tram
> > network and it is amazingly poor.  It has some really bad design
> priciples and
> > contains some bizarre errors.
> >
> > Firstly, only three colours are used to discriminate the routes -
> Blue for all
> > Yarra Trams routes, and Red and Red/Orange for Swanston Trams
> routes.  Its hard
> > to disriminate the Red/Orange from the Orange, so why in hell they
> chose such
> > similar colours beats me.   Whilst most routes are shown as solid
> lines, the
> > city circle is a sparsely dotted line and doesn't really register as
> a tram
> > route at all.  The lines are at unnecessarily crazy angles which make
> it hard to
> > read.  There are some topological errors which just beggar belief -
> such as the
> > Route 96 light rail line is shown crossing to the East of Clarendon
> Street
> > before reaching Park Street, and it looks like it runs from Port
> Melbourne to St
> > Kilda rather than Melbourne to St Kilda, The northern terminii of
> routes 78/79,
> > 69 and 72 are shown as being a long way South of Victoria Street /
> Whitehorse
> > Road and a casual reader would think there is no connection possible
> there.  The
> > Southern end of Route 78 appears to be at Carlisle Street rather than
> Brighton
> > Road.  The Southern end of routes 69 and 79 appears to be shown
> turning South
> > into Acland Street to terminate at the same place as 16 and 96
> (although its
> > hard to tell because of the similarity in route colours.  Finally,
> the treatment
> > of the Yarra river is strange - it appears to spring forth from a
> source
> > somewhere in Toorak, and flows through the city and then stops
> abrubtly short of
> > the bay somewhere near Fishermans Bend.  Even better than that
> though - the
> > river flows over the top of St Kilda Rd, Queensbridge St and
> Clarendon Streets
> > and the trams routes thereon.   Oh and whilst it does show Docklands
> and the 86
> > extension, it locates the football stadium a long way from Spencer
> Street
> > station, and it shows Lonsdale, Bourke and Collins Streets extending
> westwards
> > over the top of the Station - which they do not do.
> >
> > What a piss-poor excuse for a map.  It would be funny if it wasn't so
> serious.
> > This is going to cause confusion for potential travellers and doesn't
> do justice
> > to Melbourne's network.
> >
>
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.