Take Three Metro Lines, 2 PINK
19 GREEN
... and a projected line 9!
Add Two Tram Lines
And a Dangling Monorail
There are National Rail services to the fringes of the area which fbb will consider later.
This is the sum total of the tracked transport at Optics Valley, Wuhan.
But nowhere on-line could fbb find a map or diagram which puts it all together.
Some Metro maps are awful ...
... out of date and thus incomplete, as well as playing fast and loose with geography.
Thankfully Wikipedia has something better.
The tram's various maps are very diagrammatic ...
... and lacking an English translation of any stop names. One map looks more geographically 'right', but it does not enlarge well and, again is labelled in Chinese.
The Dangle monorail has a geographical map ...
None of these maps is published with a scale. Now fbb was taught (class 1T, Northampton Grammar School, Mr Lance) that you should always show a scale. Sadly, fbb probably does as badly as Wuhan!
Fortunately there is a video on YouTube which charts the growth of Metro and Tram. But it only goes as far as 2022, which, in Wuhan's Metro building universe, is woefully out if date.
But it does match Metro and Tram in the Optics Valley.
Stopping a video can produce fuzziness, but the broad structure is clear and a second attempt confirms the accurate geographical match. But because of the 2022 finish on the video, the combined map is incomplete.
Despite the limitations, it should be easy peasy to create something which even an aged blogger can understand.
Did fbb say 'easy'?
Anyway, the early stages of the project went smoothly. fbb overlaid his own version of the above, but sticking to straight lines and 45 degree diagonals. That's what Harry Beck did with his London!
If it was good enough for Harry, it will be good enough for fbb!
We can now get rid of the original ...
... and start adding a few stop names. They are in English on the Wikipedia Metro map and fbb remembered he "connection" between Metro 11 (YELLOW) and the Monorail (GREY) so can add the Dangle Tram, at least provisionally.
But what about the tram stops in Mandarin?
Fortunately. the wondrous Wikipedia has a list of tram stops IN ENGLISH.
It takes a bit of sorting out, but the dots tell you which stops belong to which tram service. The list also confirms where Tram and Metro "interchange".
So fbb can begin adding tram stop names.
He also decided to reduce the width of the lines for the tram routes in an attempt to provide a little reminder of the very different type of service on offer.
Should the Monorail be 'thin' as well?
Some of the stops have long names in English but in Mandarin, just four or five characters long.
The Chinese orthography uses pictograms (better 'ideograms') to express more than just one word; very economical in the use of space on maps and diagrams. fbb has had to shorten some of the stop names in English to squeeze them in to the space available.
Like Beck's Underground, there is no attempt to place stops geographically but tweaks to the diagram will undoubtedly be necessary.
Something needs to be done.
This blog will be concluded tomorrow, but, in the meantime, here is a better video that that quoted above. It takes the Metro tale through to 2028 plus. Of course it us barely understandable, but does illustrate the huge growth of Wuhan's magnificent Metro.
As the UK struggles with the Bakerloo Line to Lewisham, Docklands to Thamesmead and Crossrail 2, you can marvel at a transport policy based on an undemocratic authoritarian regime.
As Mr Punch is wont to say ...
... "That's The Way To Do It".
Well, it is if you don't have to worry about voters, The Opposition, a critical media and the need to keep taxation low!
More mapping tomorrow.
Next Convalescent Cartography blog : Sat 27 June
No comments:
Post a Comment