Taipei Metropolis (Taipei | New Taipei | Taoyuan | Keelung) Railway Diagram
This is my rendition of the sprawling and growing railway network in and around Taipei Metropolis. I've always had an affinity with the Taipei Metro system, but a recent visit spurred me to draw it for myself.
The official map released by the Taipei Metro authority is actually not too bad, but I note that, similar to the situation in Japan, Taipei and its neighbouring metro authorities do not release a consolidated, coordinated map showing their services as part of one coherent network. Instead, each metro system has its own map. This encouraged me to draw a diagram from scratch showing all 3 metro systems as equal partners to one other, and revealing the scale of the ambition of building out these systems.
In addition to drawing a diagram of the 3 metro systems as a unified whole, I have taken the chance to tweak some of the line numbering, station numbering and station naming approach adopted by Taipei Metro as I think there is a better way. Taipei Metro adopted a system with each line being referred to in Chinese by its full name (typically the name of the two districts it connects, or a portmanteau), but referred to in English by colour, and the line code following the English name. Hence Songshan Xindian Line is known as "Green Line" in English and the line code is "G". However, this approach only works if the network has a small number of lines. It starts to fall apart as more lines and line colours are needed, as the colours become more obscure. For example, the Danhai LRT has a code of "V" - for vermillion (confusing because the LRT has its own routes, referred to as the Green Hills Line and the Blue Sea Line...) while Shenkeng LRT has a code of "S" - for sienna.
Instead of that, I have gone with the approach of simplifying the Chinese name of each line and giving the line the same name in English, with a code corresponding to the unified name. Metro lines have single-letter codes while light rail systems have double-letter codes.
This approach also works better as Taoyuan Metro has decided to give its lines names based on colour, which would have resulted in two Green Lines and two Brown Lines.
Another departure from Taipei Metro's approach is the naming of certain stations. This is purely a matter of personal preference, but I tend to associate metro stations with entire suburbs, communities, neighbourhoods, or places of citywide importance, such as major hospitals and universities. So I found Taipei Metro's use of elementary and high schools - typically places of local significance only - odd, and replaced it with more conventional names around major crossroads, neighbourhoods and large parks. This is particularly notable on the Luzhou Branch of the Zhonghe-Xinlu Line (shortened to "Zhonglu Line"), which features many schools as station names.
I have also shortened the names in some cases. For example, the "community" in Wanfeng Community on the Wenhu line seems redundant. Why not just call the station Wanfeng?
Taipei Metropolis's metro network is still relatively new - it is quite shocking to know that the first sections were not open until 1996 - and there are ambitious expansion plans, although the core of the network within Taipei city proper are largely built out, and most of the expansion activity is now towards the exurban areas, in particular, to the west of Taipei. The diagram shows many lines that are in various stages of construction, planning, or in the case of the Shezi - Shilin - Beitou LRT (shortened to "Shebei Light Rail"), on pause. The note on the diagram shows which lines are not yet in operation.
Taoyuan Airport Metro - an impressive piece of infrastructure allowing for a one seat ride from Taipei's International Airport right into downtown Taipei - is depicted as two lines by Taoyuan Metro, but it is, in reality, one line with two types of services - a "commuter" all stops service, and an "express" service. Taking a leaf from my approach with Japan railway diagrams, I have drawn this as one line, but with red dots marking stations served by express services, which to me removes a lot of needless clutter.
And as for Danhai LRT, I thought I could improve the official diagram by giving the system an aquamarine palette and show each of the services as a variant to allow for easier navigation, which will probably be required once the branch line running through Tamsui Old Town and the extension across the mouth of the Tamsui River to the satellite city of Bali is completed.
Finally, I may have gone a bit overboard with the various types of interchanges, transfers and connections that you can make between the 3 metro networks, and the other railway networks running through the region. There is a section dedicated to explaining the differences. My Chinese skills are lacking so I didn't manage to provide a translation. If there are readers on Behance who have these skills and wish to offer some translations, please do drop me a note! The core section of the map shows plenty of different examples.
I am especially fond of the cross-platform interchange indicator (see Ximen, Dongmen, Guting). This is something new for me.
I hope you like this map. Any feedback and comments are welcome!
