I have designed a map for a Greater Glasgow rail network of the near future. It took a while.
GENESIS
This
map is the product of many motivations. Some are related and some are
not.
Firstly,
the Glasgow region has the second most substantial urban rail network
of any conurbation in the United Kingdom its panoply of lines is no longer represented by a dedicated map to
help rail users interpret the complicated division of services. It
did until fairly recently but the identity of
shorter distance commuter rail in this part of Scotland has since
been subsumed into the wider Scotrail network. Furthermore, the
current maps now depict the Glasgow routes using a single-colour latticework within a representation of the larger Central
Belt and it can be difficult for irregular passengers to know which
routes a particular station is served by and whether/where they might
need to make a connection as they make their way from A to B.
It
is my belief, then, that the Glasgow region needs a dedicated
route map and that, more fundamentally, a distinct identity should be
adopted for shorter distance, higher-frequency rail services.
Ideally, I would like to see the introduction of the three-level
German convention where S-Bahn systems in urban areas compliment
wider regional and intercity routes. While rail-users in Glasgow and
the contiguous urban area would benefit from improved frequencies on
these shorter services (headways in more central areas could reflect
metro-style frequencies), passengers commuting from further afield
would no longer have their journeys slowed by a long succession of
station stops in outer Glasgow; the competitiveness of contemporary
rail travel from more distant settlements such as Bathgate and
Livingston to the east, Lanark to the southeast, and Helensburgh to
the west is, arguably, compromised by what might be considered the
'duel-role' of their current rail services.
Further
to providing a representation of an idealised division of services,
the map also serves to advocate a series of (largely simple)
infrastructural improvements which would, I believe, hugely enhance
the effectiveness and appeal of rail transportation in Glasgow, the
city region and central Scotland more generally. It depicts a Glasgow
where passenger routes north and south of the River Clyde are
reconnected by a short stretch of railway which, with a small amount of vision, could be the fulcrum of a range
of cross-city and regional rail services and which, maddeningly,
remains open to freight. It shows the world's third oldest subway
line partnered with another after 119 years of service. Elsewhere,
short chords of track link extant routes to allow a maximum number of
services to pass through central
Glasgow, and consequently improve capacities and service frequencies
while linking communities in all directions.
It
has been recognised that regional British cities punch well below
their weight – economically speaking – when compared to
similarly-sized European equivalents and it must surely be recognised
that transportation plays a huge part in that (British cities also
tend to compare unfavourably with their continental counterparts
across many of those indices used to measure 'quality of life'). To
make further reference to Germany, it can be quite frustrating that
relatively modest cities such as Hanover, Dresden and Stuttgart enjoy
multi-modal systems of such startling sophistication when successive
local and national administrations have dragged their feet in investing in railways outside of the London area, taking decades to implement the most simple of improvements – a frustration shared
by those who advocate all kinds of non-car travel in the city.
This is particularly galling when you consider how Glasgow – that
most complete of Victorian cities – can still boast the under-used
skeleton of some truly visionary nineteenth-century infrastructure as well as an urban fabric which has, to a greater extent than in
any other regional British city, maintained a density (despite the
privations of post-war planning trends) which could provide real
demand for high-frequency cross-city rail – a density which is,
incidentally, the result of another great Victorian legacy: the
tenement.
All
that said, If I step down from my soapbox for a moment, and leave
aside my feelings about a century of lacklustre transport (and more
broadly urban) planning in Glasgow and elsewhere, I must recognise
that the primary motivation behind this project is actually my
near-lifelong love of maps. Maps hold my attention like no other
images and, because I also love graphic design, I particularly love
schematic transport mapping. For me they are the distillation of good
graphic design; done well, they are clean, elegant and inviting, and
they render the complicated simple. I wanted to have a crack at
designing one myself and I have endeavoured to apply the principles
inherent in the many examples of this art form that I admire to the
particular case of (my idealised) Glasgow. I hope I've been
successful.
VISION
As
stated above, I envisage the reinstatement of a separate identity
and distinct service patterns for urban commuter rail services in
the Glasgow area. As far as possible these services would operate
along fully reserved sections of rail infrastructure. Branded on the
map as GO Rail, these services would – in tandem with an expanded
Subway network – offer a fully modern metro-like system for the
city region.
Service
Configuration
I
have envisaged a cross-conurbation network which offers greatly
improved connectivity between areas in all directions across the
City of Glasgow and the wider metropolitan region. Paisley and the
Southside would enjoy access to the fast-developing East End; the
Paisley lines would be connected directly to the West End (the area
of Greater Glasgow other than the city centre which has
traditionally offered the greatest density of jobs and leisure
opportunities); areas in the poorly-served north of the city as
well as the Lanarkshire towns would also have a direct service to
the heart of the West End at Kelvinbridge and Botanic Gardens –
stations which better serve the University and the busy Byres Road
than the traditional West End rail hub at Partick. Alongside new
cross-city services, the existing subsurface east-west routes which
serve Queen Street and Central low-level stations would, as the
greatest strengths of Glasgow's contemporary urban rail network, remain fulcrums
of the envisaged network. Consequently, Only the green 7 line and
an airport shuttle service (a portion of the blue 6 line) would
mirror the great majority of routes which currently terminate at
either Central or Queen Street.
The
idealised separation of local GO Rail services and longer-distance
routes outlined above is attested by the paucity of stations
accessed by national rail services in the outer areas of the map.
Every
station would have a direct service to at least one of the three
major central hubs of Central, Queen Street-Buchanan Street and a
revived Glasgow Cross. Indeed, Glasgow Cross – with the
associated fulfilment of the well-discussed 'Crossrail' plan –
forms the linchpin of the entire network because the station would
be uniquely well-placed to provide connections between north-south
and east-west services as they pass through central Glasgow (as the
'Glasgow Cross Connections' diagram shows, 122 of the 168
other stations would be linked directly to this hub). The
map's overall division of services, therefore, owes more to the
primacy of Glasgow Cross than it does to any other principle.
Areas which would lose a direct connection to Central and Queen
Street (much of the existing suburban rail network comprises
services which begin/terminate at those two stations) would be
compensated by increased service frequencies and through-services
to other areas of the city. It should also be noted that Glasgow
Cross better serves the Merchant City and Collegelands
districts of the city centre – areas which have seen significant
development and job creation in recent years and which have seen
the traditional city centre expand eastwards; Collegelands has been
identified as a potential site for a future Glasgow terminus should
the national high-speed rail network reach the city. Passengers
traveling from the northern and southern branches of the silver 5
line (the only line without any direct access to Queen
Street-Buchanan Street or Central), meanwhile, would also have the
opportunity to connect with services to the two central rail
termini via a re-sited Springburn station (regional rail) and via a
new Pollokshields interchange (7 line or regional rail)
respectively.
The
vision for the future of the Glasgow Subway mirrors the principles
of the commuter rail lines. The long-planned eastern circle is
based on an SPT plan from the middle of the last decade but is
complimented by a meandering cross-city service (the S line) which
would offer further options for east-west travel while
strengthening connections between areas of the inner city on either
side of the Clyde; The S line's branches also utilize historic rail
alignments to offer rapid transport to areas at each end of the
city which would otherwise remain unconnected to any form of rail
transport.
Achievability
With
the exception of the Subway's eastern circle, the entirety of the
network uses current or historic rail alignments. Furthermore, the
total mileage of reinstated lines is - excepting the yellow 3 line
north of the Finnieston junction - fairly negligible, comprising
largely of short sections of reinstated chords between extant rail
infrastructure. That said, for services to run at levels approaching
ideal frequencies (I would envisage peak headways of fifteen minutes per
line branch – or approximately eight trains per hour per direction
for each line in the central portions of the network), long sections
of track would have to be doubled (or even tripled) and even then it
would likely still be impossible to achieve workable scheduling on
those alignments which share infrastructure with longer-distance
regional rail services. Then again, this is a fantasy map after all.
DESIGN PROCESS
Form
When
I set about establishing the basic form and design rules of the map,
the essential geography of the region and its rail routes offered
some very strong suggestions. With some fairly steep hills lying both
north and south of the Clyde the conurbation has stretched out along
the river and consequently more of the lines run broadly east-west
than north-south. Indeed, the physical map of the network's routes
shows that even those lines that do converge on Glasgow from the
north and south actually run for long stretches along an east-west
axis. It was an obvious choice, then, to design the map around a
framework of eighteen evenly spaced horizontal lines with the two
solidly cubic Subway 'circles' at the centre. The design guide makes
it clear that each route is essentially plotted along a series of
these lines while the subordinate vertical and diagonal sections are
treated as a means of 'hopping' between them.
As
with most schematic transportation maps of any real complexity, the
central section has been greatly expanded due the density of its
stations and the interactions of converging lines in the inner city.
Comparing the physical and schematic maps it is evident that the area
within the two subway loops (which is roughly commensurate with the
extent of the inner city north of the Clyde) has been hugely
exaggerated while the presentation of central Glasgow has been
further simplified by maintaining a strict horizontal alignment for
the river (which actually runs ESE-WNW) through this portion of the
map. The central part of the city region (the part of the network
which is most heavily-used and thus the part of the map which the eye
should most naturally be drawn to) is then further emphasized by
positioning the shared vertical alignment of all three Subway lines
at the very centre.
The
need to maintain clarity by reserving a reasonable amount of space
for each route alignment and the good practice of limiting the number
of times a line changes direction does, however, create some
interesting quirks in the more peripheral sections of the map; the
centre's ballooning in size is accompanied by contraction at the
edges and the differences between physical and schematic geography
become more acute – especially as it's the complicated central
sections which dictate more of the overall form. Comparing the
physical and schematic maps, it becomes obvious that the Drumgelloch
branch of the pink 5 and dark blue 6 lines has been forced away from
the red 1 line and, therefore, Coatbridge Sunnyside
and Whifflet stations have become this map's Wimbledon and South Wimbledon.
Line
Conventions
As
the diagram for line and station dimensions illustrates, the weight
of a route line is 200% that of the space between two lines where
they run parallel to each other. Where two lines change direction in
unison, the standard arc of a single line is used for one (outer)
path while the other line turns inside this conventional arc. In the
two instances where three lines change direction together, however,
the third route turns with a wider arc to the outside of the
conventional (middle) arc.
Spacing
The
spacing of stations is – as shown in the design guide – dictated
by three basic rules. In the simpler (largely peripheral) route
sections the distance between the beginning/end of a section (after a
change in alignment or an 'interaction' with a distinct element, such
as another line or the river) and the nearest station is generally
half that of the distance between the stations on that
section. In denser sections, however, there are stations which
immediately precede/follow a change of alignment. In these cases, an
initial 'buffer' section (equivalent in length to the weight of the
line stroke) is placed between the turn and the station. This same
buffer is also applied as a short extension of the line beyond every
terminus station. Finally, where there is a single station on an
alignment, it occupies the centre of that section. By adhering to
these rules the various route sections are presented consistently,
despite their exhibiting widely differing proportions, alignments and
station densities.
Colours
The
colours assigned to the various rail and subway lines is dictated by
the routes they use as they travel through central Glasgow.
- Those lines which cross the river via the revived north-south 'Crossrail' section between Gorbals and Glasgow Cross are broadly blue in colour; the two lines which operate to Paisley are light and dark blue respectively while the 4 line – which only runs alongside the other two for a short central section – is given a more distinct blue-grey colour.
- The two lines which run east-west through the inner city via Central (and which share track to the southeast of the conurbation) are given the 'fiery' colours of red and yellow.
- The colour of the pink 5 line is dictated by the fact that it shares characteristics with both of the above two groupings; it occupies a subsurface east-west alignment through the city centre – like the red 1 line – but, in tandem with the light blue 2 line, it serves Queen Street-Buchanan Street and also shares long sections of track with the other two 'blue' lines.
- The green 7 line, meanwhile, is an outlier with very distinct service characteristics and is, therefore, assigned a colour which contrasts with all others.
- The colour scheme for the Subway is based around that of the existing western circle which has, since a major overhaul in the 1970s, been associated with the colour orange. Therefore, the W service maintains that historic colour while the E and S lines are assigned colours – brown and black respectively – which, with orange, reference the pervasive palate of 1970s design trends (think wallpaper). The three colours of the Subway are also distinct from those represented across the commuter rail services, and this division is further emphasized by the application of a narrow white stroke within the coloured lines.
- Three lines include sections which have a non-standard service. In these instances, the applied hue is equivalent to the standard route colour at 50% opacity (where white is the background colour).
Clyde
The
River Clyde is rendered in three separate weights as it flows from
the bottom right to the top left of the map. The first, winding
section to the right is 3/4 the weight of the middle horizontal
section, while the thicker diagonal section is set at 5/4 weight. The
distance between the river and three different route alignments (the
western S line branch to Renfrew, the 1 and 2 lines between Clydebank
and Yoker, and the long section of the 1 and 3 lines between
Rutherglen and Hamilton) is set at a constant, while the
representation of the river is further simplified by limiting the
number of twists and turns to the south and east of central Glasgow
(again, compare the physical and schematic network maps). The
treatment of the 'flow lines' within the river is the product of a
desire to compliment the functional components of the map with some
purely aesthetic visual 'hooks'.
BRANDING
GO Rail
The
'G' and the 'O' interlock to reference the network's various
interchanges and their ability to connect all parts of Greater
Glasgow. Movement is further expressed by a break in the 'O', which
might be read as a clockwise-revolving wheel. The colours are taken from two of
the map's route lines.
These
route roundels reiterate the GO Rail identity by taking the basic
form of the 'O' in the network logo.
Subway
Glasgow's
'S' is, at long last, composed of two circles. Orange is retained for
its long-standing association with the system.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I
owe a debt to Cam Booth and his excellent Transit Maps blog. For both form and theory, Cam is an absolute doyen
of the art of making transit maps and his blog has offered
inspiration through the work of many great designers – not least
himself. His tutorials on good labelling practice were invaluable and
he also led me the excellent Source Sans Pro font used throughout.
I
must also thank the members of the Glasgow forum at Skyscraper City whose idealistic commitment to a revived
urbanism and a better Glasgow compel them to maintain records of
local and national government plans for transport developments both
current and long since abandoned, whilst also offering up many
original and inspired ways of improving Greater Glasgow's rail
infrastructure. In fact, of all the innovations shown on the map, only
the Subway branch to Tollcross, a restored spur to Kirkintilloch, a new Springburn interchange sited between Cowlairs and Sighthill junctions, and a combined Pollokshields station are entirely my idea. The geekery of many forumers has proved
extremely helpful.
GALLERY
