And you would be right to wonder. Because whilst my post starts off talking about changes you can see on the printed copy, it meanders off into making claims about the new map which just aren’t there in the printed version. Was I hallucinating? Was I drunk? Was I making things up?

The rather more prosaic answer is that I checked things using the electronic version of the latest tube map which, oddly, is different from the printed version. The Oval / Kennington flip flop, for example, is there on the electronic version but not the paper version. Borough station too has not migrated westwards on the printed version, and so on.

Which is all rather a shame, because in fact that electronic version is therefore rather better than the printed version. Yet they are both marked “December 2011″ edition. Odd, as I said.

Slightly oddly, being built seems to be enough to get it on the map, even though another new one is due anyway before it will be completed.

Other changes are fairly minor, with the DLR spur to Lewisham having been moved slightly to the west to now run due south from Poplar removing a long-standing kink in the line. (Oddly, the online but not the printed version of the previous map also had the kink removed.)

Borough station migrates westward, not for winter but to allow the zone shading near it to be straightened out. Meanwhile, Kennington and Oval stations do a flip; where before Kennington had its name to the west of the Northern Line and Oval to the east, now it is the other way round thanks again to an improvement in the shaded zonal information with an extra number “2 “being introduced in the south London stretch of Zone 2. Zone 3 too gets some extra numbers south of the river. There may be a shortage of tube stations and taxis south of the river, but hey – at least there are now more zonal numbers.

Blackfriars, despite not yet being open again, loses its crossing out whilst Shadwell, despite getting closer to having its step free work completed loses its step free logo and acquires a dagger instead. Like a cautious courting couple, Dalston Junction and Hackney Central shuffle closer to each other, but not touching you understand.

Other changes include the District Line spur to Kensington Olympia going dashed to reflect the limited service, Green Park becoming a partially step free (and, in mapping terms, horribly ugly) station, Heathrow improving its step free statuses and the Northern Line once more stopping at Tottenham Court Road. In slight compensation for Green Park, Wembley Park now no longer looks like it has a mini-section of the Piccadilly Line running between its two parts.

As ever, the online pdf of the London tube map has also been updated.

UPDATE: Oops, things are a bit more complicated than I realised when I wrote this. See The curious case of the two new London Underground maps.

You can view the Tube heatmap here and then wonder why Edgeware Road is quite so hot.

You may have noticed the two versions of the wheelchair logo starting to appear in the maps on stations and in trains, although so far the new map does not seem to have made it into any of the piles of printed maps found on the London Underground network. The online pdf of the London tube map has however been updated.

Here is the section showing the new DLR stations along with some of the new logos. Say hello to two new stations with Stratford in their title (it’s all going a bit Harrow out in East London), along with Abbey Road and Star Lane stations. There is also a slight shuffle to the west for Royal Victoria and a straightening out of the DLR around Poplar:

The use of two logos for step free access also means stations such as Green Park and Westminster have grown from one circle to two:

(Myself, I’d have taken the shorter route anyway, because I’d rather avoid using the Circle or Circle/District combo if at all possible given my repeated experiences of huge gaps in the service.)

Now if only the Nudge team could turn their minds to people walking on the wrong side of the corridor…

… in the latest tube map at least. New maps have started appearing on the London Underground, with Tottenham Court Road moved slightly to the west. This is so that it no longer appears on the Northern Line as those platforms have recently been closed until late 2011 as part of the major Crossrail-inspired rebuilding work at the station. In addition to bringing Crossrail to Tottenham Court Road station, the tube station itself is having ticket hall and entrances expanded and improved.

I’ve not seen any new editions of the printed map with this change, though the pdf tube map online has been updated – albeit this one has a red cross next to Tottenham Court Road station’s name, whilst the printed ones in use on station hoardings don’t.

Yesterday was my first sighting of the latest edition of the London Underground’s Tube map, March 2011 edition. The main change is the addition of the new stretch of London Overground line running from Dalston through to Highbury and Islington:

Also of note is what I think is a lovely little touch of improved design further south. The Overground line running down to Crystal Palace and West Croydon has moved fractionally to the left – for no apparent reason other than it therefore doesn’t quite rest on one of the folds of the map. That in turn keeps the map a bit more readable if your fold gets heavily worn – as my previous edition of the map demonstrates.

Otherwise, it’s pretty much same as before though the grey shading is darker, there is a continuing reduction in the use of red daggers (on which in particular see this discussion) to indicate special information about specific stations, the lines around Stratford have been tweaked ahead of further changes in the system and a couple of stations on the North London line as way have moved a little to make the layout clearer.

And yes, the Thames is still there in its restored glory.

(Click on image for larger version)

Here are the old and new versions (click on pictures for fuller versions):

Aside from the improvements, the new map has three issues:

(a) a smattering of typos / inconsistencies

(b) the disabled access information is still stuck in the worst of both worlds – extremely intrusive on the map design and yet also very incomplete in terms of the information you may actually need

(c) the Thames is no more

Yes, you can whizz over or under the Thames by Tube or bus without having to know where it is, but it is still a useful frame of reference for the map – and without the Thames the map takes a step back in 8providing integrated transport information for it means it’s less useful in giving information about the Thames riverboat services. Instead of having the blue line of the Thames to mark their route, you have to hop from station icon to station icon to work out where the route goes.