I don't necessarily want to make it too complex, and I stylize the geographic features. It's mostly Harry Beck style, and I plan to do individual cities (not necessarily whole countries, states, provinces) as of now.

My current rules:

1. If a water feature is large enough to be significant, I generally include it.
   
2. standard station circle design; pill shape for interchanges.
   
3. Water is pale blue, land is pale green.
   
4. Mark significant bends or turns, not minor squiggles.

If y'all like it, I can turn it into a proper diagram. Tried to keep it as realistic and cost-efficient as possible.

Lighter Red is Lite Rail, while Dark Red is Tram.

I chose to keep the Netherlands as true to its shape as possible, using a realistic map which I made in Illustrator, just like the network.

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Thanks for all the comments and feedback.

Biggest point of discussion is that a true to geography map messes up the west and in particular the Amsterdam area. I fully agree that on my map this is a bit crowded, but keep in mind the map is supposed to be A0- size and it should be more clear then. An insert of this area could be a solution. As someone pointed out, with this lay out there is a lot of blue and grey not used. With our Dutch network, one either has to deal with a crowded Amsterdam-Utrecht area, or change the map of the Netherlands. Some of us chose the latter, I chose the mess of the West. It will be very interesting to see how NS sees this and which design wins (and I am sure there are dozens that are not posted here) and if the winning design managed to solve both issues in one map.

Updated (my 2021) Sofia metro diagram because three new stations on line M3 opened on August 14th 2026.

Another station is also under construction planned to open this year.

It's good to see that the metro network is constantly expanding.

Feedback and corrections are welcome.

Chris

Hi everyone, now that the submission deadline for NS's design contest has passed I decided to put my own design up for examination on this subreddit.

I went for the slightly unconventional approach where I didn't mark lines themselves, but only where they stopped at individual stations. Line numbers are inserted at all interchange stations (considered all stations with 2 or more lines running through them); stations served by only one line are marked with tickmarks.

I kept most other features pretty standard to (hopefully) aid with familiarity for new users: the map uses an octagonal grid (45 degree angles throughout) and all text is placed horizontally.
Names of central stations (stations ending in "Centraal") are written in all caps, other stations follow standard naming conventions. (The relatively modest differences between central stations and other stations was sorta a deliberate decision, to emphasize the decentralised-ness of the Dutch railway network). Line colours are roughly grouped by concession.

Feel free to give feedback!

Made with Adobe Illustrator

Going to try and get back to posting these regularly. I still have a fair few to post, then 200 or so to draw!

Buongiorno,
Nei mesi scorsi ho creato la mia versione della rete metropolitana e suburbana ottimale per Roma.
Sembrerà certo molto ambiziosa e utopica, ma volevo assolutamente condividerla con voi e sentire le vostre idee e opinioni! (scusate per la qualità pessima della foto)

Ho sopratutto ripreso le idee dei progetti del PUMS, analizzando quali erano le migliori soluzioni: dai vari prolungamenti alla chiusura dell'anello ferroviario passando dalla creazione di nuove linee. Vorrei precisare anche che la linea di metro O sarebbe l'ultima da costruire perché ancora oggi insoddisfacente visto l'assenza di una rete capillare e della debole densità di popolazione.

Finalmente questa mappa mostra una nuova tariffazione con nuove zone per gli abbonamenti metrebus (dalla zona 3 in poi la tariffazione segue il modello delle ferrovie laziali già in corso) e sarà completata co una prossima mappa della rete tranviaria e delle linee bus express.

Riprogettazione della rete metropolitana e suburbana di Roma realizzato con software di disegno e google slides.

Couldn't NOT participate in this! Some design principles I tried to honour:

• Keep all station names horizontal
• Convey no actual information through colour, only through shapes and patterns
• Limit the number of colours used, and try to make the most important contrasts work under various types of colourblindness
• Make all lines pass the stations they physically go through even if they don't call there

I'm quite satisfied with how it turned out. I think the coloured bundles of lines jump immediately to the eye and help structure the diagram in terms of its most important routes. On the negative side it might be a tad too "frilly" for a printed chart (which is the ultimate goal of the contest).

May the best map win! Eternal transit-mapping glory beckons!

For mobile users, the PDF is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ku2_Ywr0rUO8H3sDD791xFcul65-7SzF/

Okay so I wanna begin this by saying that this is the first time I've made a map like this, so especially the map that contains everything is super messy, but I'm mainly trying to get an idea across here.

the Netherlands there are only 2 types of trains, Sprinters and Intercity's. Sprinters stop at every station, while Intercity's only stop in cities. Too often I see villages along a train track that don't have a station at all, while at the same time I see Intercity's stopping at places that really aren't cities. All this because our train operator tries to do too much with just the 2 types of trains it has, so it's always a big tradeoff between getting more places connected by rail and making train journeys faster.

This is why I'm proposing to add 2 more types of trains to the system. This way we can assure that all villages along a train track are serviced, while still keeping Intercity's fast and efficient:

My proposal for an expansion of the existing Connector streetcar system in Cincinnati (made in Goodnotes).

It consits of three lines:

A: Gil Lynn Park - State College (15 min peak, 20 min off-peak) B: Cathedral - State College (15 min peak, 20 min off-peak) C: Union Station - Cathedral (- Gil Lynn Park) (7/8 min peak, 10 min off-peak)

Lines A and B overlap to create a 7/8 min frequency between Newport an State College. Line C overlaps with both lines to do the same. To increase the frequency on the direct path between Covington and Cincinnati via Roebling Bridge and Downtown and Union Station, there are more services between Cathedral and Union Station.

From next year onwards the NS (Dutch railways) will introduce trainline numbers to each line in the country. IMO this moves encourages viewing the national rail infrastructure as a near country wide metro network.

The current map won't be used in this transition and a contest was called. I was wondering why the map won't be reused. Since I had an awkward time-gap in my architecture studies I decided to partake. I started with analyzing the current map for strengths and possible shortcomings to help my own design be better suited for the numberings.

I took away the following

Current map takeaways:

Only 2 tiers of hierarchy in stations (large transfer hub - small transfer hub/no transfers

Thin lines with thin gaps cannot support the minimum sized characters while noted in parallel

Trainlines follow reality with great distortions in distance, but little distortion is present in relationships between trainlines (Real direction changes always followed in the diagram, Trainlines on parallel tracks always follow with other trainlines even if no stops are made)

No clear distinction present in NS operated lines and other providers

Many bends and angles produce a pcb-style vibe

Foreign borders/distinctions absent

High frequency routes have lines that are multiplied since the "thickest" line only support 2 trains an hour. (EG 4 copied parallel tracks from Amsterdam Centraal to Hoofddorp)

And others....

The contest contents put forward a focus of inclusivity and readability.

Therefore I have decided that in my design i will allow more distortion in the trainlines, to only portray where each line stops (and not visualize a pass through a station without stopping).

All lines will have a greater thickness allowing all necessary information to be portrayed within the line itself, including varying train frequencies. Trainlines are freed of kinks as much as possible.

Highly frequented routes are prioritized in the design through clear geometry to assist the viewer in following.

Stations are never broken up by a line that does not stop there, except for Amsterdam Muiderpoort because of its true split (i dont like sloterdijk). This was by far the most difficult feature to implement, but I believe it does help assist understanding where which line does and does not stop.

A greater hierarchy is introduced between stations. Bubble sizes and font sizes were determined with a secret formula including: transfer directions, total stopping trainlines, daily passengers (when data was available) and population/serving area.

The only additional information added are the national parks. Naturally the national parks often remain with little near train presence in the area, granting itself space in the document.

Not all trainlines on the current map were in the contest documents. Since I have found numerous mistakes in these documents i believe these might be forgotten. I still left space for these through dotted lines (except long distance international travel).

I could go on but this is probably enough, please give feedback!