Typical metro maps are quite complicated to automatically calculate. At least I know of no efficient algorithm and force-directed layout doesn't really work, since you want the stations in roughly the right place, especially relative to other stations. A colleague tried something based on a paper a few years ago [1], alas it only really worked with a commercial ILP solver. We've tried an open-source one a year before that and could only get results in acceptable time for three lines or so.

I think most tube maps are hand-arranged, perhaps with some algorithmic help, but oftentimes you also have to fit a specific aspect ratio or shape (because the greater metropolitan area is also shown on the map, along with fare zones), which I don't think any algorithm currently does well. And the manual approach can result in niceties like the actual circle around the city center here: https://www.rsag-online.de/fahrplan/liniennetzplaene

[1] https://www.yworks.com/blog/automatic-metro-map-generation

I wonder if adding River Thames crossings will improve things. That's a major component of the tube map.

Huh, didn't think of that. I'll give it a go later.

Looks mostly decent, just needs vertical and horizontal mirroring. Also I don't understand the colour choice, sometimes it switches from one to another on the same line (Barking -> Upney).

> sometimes it switches from one to another on the same line (Barking -> Upney)

Beats me. I just ran the Perl to convert the list of tubes to the neato format and it made them both green. Maybe I generated the images and then later fixed a bug in the generation? I could probably check but I'd have to resurrect Trac from 18 years ago and ... uh.

(See also EastCote and Eastcote on the map where there's now only EastCote in the data file.)

November 2005

[ Note: this is where I lost interest and stopped writing. ]

I probably broke hobix with a Ruby upgrade and started a spiral into blog engine madness...