I found that there were very few data visualisations available on the London Underground, so decided to produce a series of visualisations focused on the entry and exit figures of the whole network over the last 10 years, along with some more general information. I felt that this subject would lend itself to data visualisation, as millions of people use the network on a regular basis, but may not know anything about it. On a more basic level, the colours of the tube lines would make it easy to identify them throughout the visualisations.
I gathered data from TfL and re-arranged and analysed the information here. I looked for interesting trends and anomalies, and then combined them into the following data visualisations.
2007 vs 2016 comparison
I used Processing.js to map the figures for all stations across the 10 years’ data.
Station usage
I wanted to show in a very visual way, the number of people using each station of the London Underground. Instead of using graphs or charts, I decided to make use of the universally recognisable shapes of the London Underground map to swell and distort the lines themselves.
I calculated the total usage figures for each station using the weighting suggested by TfL, then applied this to the maps; almost like a swarm of commuters in a queue for the platform at each station.
The full London Underground map is shown below, followed by each of the individual lines.
The full-size map can be viewed here.
Tube station interchanges
I also used Processing.js to create a circular diagram of all the interchange stations on the London Underground, showing which lines it is possible to switch between, and where.
The colour at the ends of the connecting lines shows from which line the connection originated. The full diagram is shown below, followed by the output from my Processing.js code.
Diagram output from Processing.js code