A spoof London Underground map made for the city of Cardiff has today become an internet hit.
The Cardiff Underground map made by Christian Amodeo, the brains behind T-shirt brand I Loves the 'Diff was posted up this morning and has since received waves of acclamation from Twitter followers.
Christian, who lives near Roath Park, said he had the idea for the map some months ago while riding through the city on a Cardiff Bus, but then he saw this BBC news story about a new Metro rail network in South east Wales and decided to finish the map off with help from Google maps.
Christian said the map was also inspired by this Music on the Tube map artwork by Dorian Lynskey – but he hadn't seen Rob Stevens's Cardiff Overground map which we featured on the blog last year after it was exhibited by project/ten.
Creating the map was a gruelling process, but Christian said the positive feedback on the web today has made it all worth while. He said:
"For the most part it is faithful to the Tube map but I have moved a couple of stations and removed a couple that were surplus to requirements - such as on the western part of the Circle (or Cwtch as I have renamed it - far more friendly) line. Where in London you'd be in salubrious High Street Kensington or thereabouts, on my map you're hurtling beneath Leckwith Woods - hence their removal.
"Cardiff east was a breeze by comparison to the west. A good couple of hours were spent trying to remedy a few glaring geographical problems down St Athan and Cowbridge way!"
So would the Cardiff Underground designer ever fancy hooking up with transport bosses to make the underground system become a reality? "If only," was Christian's response – but he did said transport links in the city could be improved.
"There's little doubt that Cardiff and 'metropolitan' area requires better public transport infrastructure. If my trivial bit of fantasy gets people thinking and talking about all sorts of schemes to improve the way we move about our beloved city then so much the better."
We love the Cardiff underground map, what do you think? Should the city have its own subway? Leave your comments below.
