High-res map link (PDF) (18MB): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fXHVO5qC-FM_hYweV_7QLV0kb50kt0VL/view?usp=sharing (Requires downloading for full zoom)
This is the mega project that I have been working for almost the past year, on and off - the frequency map of the Japanese railways. It's more of a proof-of-concept map to show that maps of such size and detail could be created, so it is a bit rough in places, but overall I think it is pretty usable. The map is in Japanese only, the reason being that it is difficult to find correct English station names, which will be further explained below.
The general motif of the map is to show the actual train services on the lines and their stopping patterns and frequency, so each service is shown as one routes on the map do not branch off; lines with branches (or a different stopping pattern) are shown as separate routes. This reduces the confusion of not knowing where the short running trains end, in the expense of increasing the width of lines. For through services, the lines is treated as if it were the same line (usually the core section) when it pretty much functions as one big line (in the case of Tokyu Toyoko Line, Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line, and Minatomirai Line, or JR Tokaido Line and JR Utsunomiya/Takasaki Lines). The through running lines are treated as different lines when there is a clear distinction between through-running services and services that don't. For example, the services on the Keio Main Line can be separated into two main categories, services that through-run to Toei Shinjuku Line and services that terminate at Shinjuku. The former is treated as a part of the Shinjuku Line, while the latter is treated as belonging to the Keio Line itself.
Exceptions to the one service one line rule are the sections with a limited frequency, and the Soutetsu-JR Line from Shinjuku to Ebina. (It was originally 2 services, one local and one express, but became two locals after the timetable changes in March 2021, which meant they should have merged into one route, but I kept them as 2 routes to preserve the symmetry around the Yamanote Line.)
Relative geography on the map is maintained in 99.9% of the places, with more details in the urban areas and less in the countryside: Lines in the countryside eg Hokkaido, Tohoku, southern Kyushu, Shikoku, etc, tend to be more boxy and lack 45° angle lines. Less concern is put into junctions and turnarounds in the countryside, with these often omitted. The only exceptions to the relative geography rule are Kodemmacho and Monorail Hamamatsucho, which are respectively on the wrong side of Sobu Line and Yamanote Line, due to space constraints in downtown Tokyo.
There are certain areas I like a lot, such as the diagonal grid in the western part of Osaka Loop Line (better if the lines lined up to form a square grid) and the symmetric shape of the Yamanote Line and Osaka Loop Line. There are also some parts that I would like to revisit them (or perhaps even regretting the decisions made), such as pushing Yokohama downwards to make Yokohama Line a straight diagonal, which resulted in an overexpanded section west of Yokohama and a jog in the Odakyu Line between Machida and Ebina; the usage of extra curves on Meitetsu near Nagoya, which has produced a large sweeping 'disc' shape doing nothing but taking up space.
Moving onto the aesthetic aspects of the map, I've decided not to use the official colors but use colors from the default Inkscape palette, because of (a) I do not want to bother looking for the correct colors. For some lines there may be even more than one depending on the context; (b) Mixing all these colors may be unharmonious and clash with each other. Usually the line color is taken from the representing color of a particular area, and when there are more than one company serving the same area, the same or similar color(s) will be used; and (c) the saturation of different colors affect the prominence of a line, which would mean that a more frequent line could be less noticed by the viewer due to its paler line color, and vice versa.
Similarly, the station names are only in Japanese, because there are so many different ways to transliterate Japanese and the official methods of each railway company are different, resulting in multiple versions of names of the same station. It is too overwhelming to look for and deal with the English names of the 9000+ stations. Even with the Japanese names alone, it was quite a hassle to deal with as some of the stations have names with disagreeing uppercase and lowercase, and special care has to be made to these, such as 市ヶ谷 vs 市ケ谷 in Tokyo.
Most stations and lines are numbered or coded, but I decided to omit that as it was difficult to find a style that unifies the different numbering methods, and also due to the lack of space in certain areas.
The font used here is m+1c in the m+ font series, which is a great Japanese font (plus it's opensource). I won't say it's the best font, but it is quite legible and serves the job pretty well, and also gives the map its own Japanese vibe.
Some shout outs to resources that I have used during the design process:
- The relevant Japanese Wikipedia articles of rail lines and companies for the stop pattern and frequency (in the case of an irregularish pattern)
- https://roote.ekispert.net/ja/rmap for a geographic overview of the network
- https://navitime.co.jp for the timetables
Maps that have inspired me to make the map:
- カオストレイン(twitter.com/chaostrain) 's series of frequency maps of certain Japanese railway companies. (Though I should point out that the use of one line for one tph might create confusion when counting the number of trains)
- This map on the Japanese Wikipedia of the Meitetsu network, which shows the trains patterns neatly, plus showing the off-peak and peak services simultaneously.
