The central London Tube map: information, control and power?

27 June 2016

Our London office is near Blackfriars. Once you are here it is great for reaching many places in central London either by walking or on the Circle and District lines. However, it is oddly difficult to reach from the south or north of the city. The Tube map does not really help as the schematic representation makes some distances look far longer than they are or vice versa – see the map here.

What we soon realised working here is how useful the Thameslink service is to reach King’s Cross St. Pancras and then a short walk from there to Euston. Pre-engineering works being able to reach London Bridge was handy as well. The two stations of Blackfriars and City Thameslink are very close and it is helpful in avoiding the hot, crowded Tube with its steep descents.

However, the Thameslink line does not appear on the TfL central London tube map. The only ‘heavy rail’ lines that do are  London Overground services owned by TfL. I can see this is difficult. If you put on this line, why not Waterloo to Vauxhall and others as well? However, the case for the Thameslink line seems overwhelming. During the day the services are lightly used and this would take pressure off the Tube and the roads.

An organisation called Mapping London highlights different maps of London. One of these is a geographic map of London with tube and rail links. It would be good to see this map being made more widely available, particularly on the Tube network.

You can view the full map in all its glory as a vector PDF.