Off the map

These are fast-changing times, cartographically-speaking. Here's what the London Overground map looked like a couple of weeks back, with the new extension in the bottom-right corner now shown (Dalston Jct-New Cross/Gate):


And here's what the latest one looks like, just a couple of weeks on, with a huge further expansion across the southern reaches of the map:


A further short expansion will occur next spring (Dalston Jct to Highbury & Islington), followed by a southern link in 2012 between Clapham Jct and Surrey Quays to "complete the circle".

There are knock-on effects on other maps, too -- here (rather clumsily placed, I would say) the Overground interchange symbol now appears at West Croydon on the Tramlink map:


It's difficult keeping up with all this. In fact, this may be a pale reflection of what the Victorians lived through in the 1840s boom years of railway expansion.

How thrilling.