New Melbourne Public Transport Map

[Chris Brownbill <cbrnbill@enternet.com.au>]

The Dept of Infrastructure have published an updated Public Transport map of
Melbourne dated July 1999.

Its available from Railway stations at a cost of $2.

It basically follow the same design as the maps of earlier eras, but a few
subtle changes have been made.

Firstly there is one sensible change which is the use of coloured background to
denote fare zone - ie yellow blue or red.  One neutral adjustment is a changed
way of denoting tram routes - it was previously a parallel pair of narrow green
lines whereas now they are a thick green line with white dots in the centre. 
Bus routes are now colour coded (previously were black), although the lines are
thinner than before. 

Really dumb change though are that the way of illustrating the overlap fare
zones is by showing the rail or bus route as a dotted line (with the background
of different colours on either side).  This makes it look like the line is under
construction or something (eg solid line Melbourne to Canterbury, dotted
Canterbury to  Mont Albert, solid Mont Albert to Nunawading, dotted Nunawading
to Heatherdale etc).  Curiously this applies only to trains and buses but not
trams.  Its also very misleading when contrasted with the docklands tram line
which is showw in its entirety as if it was already operational with only a very
minor notation (Proposed Tram) alongside.

Also, they seem to have forgotten to mark any rail line between Flagstaff and
North Melbourne, and between Parliament and Jolimont.  Conversely, the Simpson
Street shunt and Middle Park beack tram lines are shown even though no regular
service operates.  Also, whilst the bus routes are colour coded, trams get no
such treatment - they're all green.

Whilst contact details of the new private operators are listed on the obverse,
there is very little mention of the fact that the network has been broken up. 
It seems that the release of this map (its only 2 weeks until the private owners
take over) is an attempt to create a perception that we still have an integrated
transport network - maybe an election is in the air.

All in all a pretty average attempt at a map.