The TTC map just got its biggest upgrade in decades. Meet the cartographer behind it

Every time Alex Blackwell and his team step on a TTC vehicle, they make their way to the transit map and stare at it. Sometimes for a really, really long time.

“People assume that we’re tourists and lost,” he says. “We have to say ‘No no, we’re employees of the TTC.’ … It happens quite a lot.”

As the TTC’s in-house cartographer, the map has been Blackwell’s baby for the past decade. And he’s just given the map its biggest makeover in decades, adding both the Finch LRT and the beleaguered Eglinton LRT lines.

“It’s a massive change to both the city and our map products,” he says.

Even though the Eglinton Crosstown still isn’t open yet — and Blackwell has no idea when it will — maps including the new orange Line 5 have been rolling out across the system. It’s a complex process that takes months to complete. Blackwell estimates some 20,000 maps need to be replaced.

The TTC decided to add Eglinton to the map when the Finch LRT opened, instead of updating it twice, saving “tens of thousands of dollars in reprint costs,” according to TTC spokesperson Stuart Green.

Making transit maps ‘always about compromises’

Cramming all these new stops onto a pre-existing map presents many challenges.

Commuters may have noticed the new Eglinton line doesn ’t appear straight on the light-up subway maps on Line 1 and Line 4. The LED lights couldn’t be moved, so Blackwell had to design little dips on the map to make sure stations could light up and avoid the screw holes for fasteners.

“Designing transit maps is always about compromises,” says Blackwell. “As we introduce more lines, it becomes more and more difficult to include the information that we need.”

Blackwell gets instant feedback thanks to a fervent online transit maps fanbase, many of whom design and post their own “fantasy maps” of Toronto’s transit system.

“Every time we put out a new map, I am looking on the forums. I’m looking on Reddit,” Blackwell says. “There’s always things to learn, ideas to gather, things that can be implemented into my own work.”

A recent map of his featuring Line 1 flipped on its side has proven particularly “polarizing.”

“It really is this community of people that are just so passionate about this one particular style of design,” he says.

Blackwell considers himself a part of this community. His desk has binders full of transit maps from around the world. The cloth he uses to clean his glasses is a map of the Montreal metro system. He was just at a symposium for transit mapping in Hong Kong, which he tacked onto his vacation.

New map shows ‘big serious system’

Mark Ovenden hosts a weekly U.K. radio show on transit and design and has written multiple books about transit maps of the world. His most recent, Iconic Transit Maps, features Toronto’s. 

He says Toronto’s map “already had quite a bit of panache” but he’s been delighted to see it grow.

“I think Alex and his team have done a really fantastic job in standing on the shoulders of the older, longer, thin black background transit map, and [they] made it a much bigger area and a much more interesting and exciting thing to look at,” he says.

“It looks like a big serious system that you want to go and ride.”

Blackwell has never really gone public about his mapmaking identity, although a colleague outed him at December’s opening of the Finch LRT — and he ended up signing maps for eager transit enthusiasts.

He jokes now about setting up an autograph booth at Eglinton’s opening, whenever that may be.