This page details the story behind the map, explaining why I decided to design a map and the process of its creation.
This map was under the moniker ‘#ProjectFarnhamCity’, but I never did intend to call the city that name. Farnham screams rural, this city is anything but. I'm quoting directly from a friend here who got a preview of the map.
I eventually settled on Zafarnia after a lot of thought. I always love names starting with the letter ‘Z’ and I did want to incorporate Farnham (or part of the word, anyway) in the name somehow. So… Zafarnia.
Creation of fantasy cities and public transport systems was something I had done since primary school. Barbica, my first city, imagined in primary school, surpassed all bounds of realism. A behemoth of a metro system with 1,089 lines, in practice, only two lines were partly fleshed out and that was it. I had only drawn these lines once; the rest were in my mind as I pretended to be a Northern Line train every single morning breaktime at school. There was not much in the way of tourism or culture in Barbica, just a lot of motorways (one of my many obsessions as a child) and trains.
There were only 30 people in my year group (not including people who moved schools). I always kept to my year group only apart from one of my classmate’s siblings. For a system with 1,089 lines (and these were all large lines, with tons of branches) – how many nonsensical names could I come up to fill all the remaining blank stations?
(Fun fact, each person would get their own line if I had theoretically completed it, so there would be a Marisa Line, Ciaran Line, Ezinne Line, Oladayo Line etc).
In secondary school, Conapega was devised. This would be a map for peers in my year group at Dame Alice Owen’s. Moving from a year group of 30 to 200 certainly could fill up a map more considerably. The Conapega metro system was more grounded in reality to a point, heavily based on the TfL network again, with just 15 Underground lines. There was an Overground system, a DLR and apparently, a tramway too, though these were not fleshed out. Nevertheless, this metro system was not devised logically. The lines were separately drawn out first, without any consideration as to how these lines would integrate into a system. The lines had interchanges left right and centre. I never attempted to draw out the entire system as a whole until recently, and when doing this it quickly became a convoluted mess – with lines zig-zagging in absurd ways across one another. Many of the lines have an identity crisis, they cannot decide whether they want to zip through the city, skipping stops served by other lines, or whether they want to serve closely spaced stations in succession.
I attempted to draw a complete map combining all existing Napega Lines, and didn't get too far to realise it was a convoluted mess of spaghetti. Look at the teal-coloured line, for instance!
The nonsensical layout of the city, ultimately a very long and narrow metropolis, is demonstrated by the fact that the airport is plonked right near the centre of the city. The Conapega map is a senseless assortment of tangled lines. Now that Zafarnia has been launched, my next project is to completely redesign this system (Project Napega), and I have made little progress at this point, however now I've got St. Jacques and Zafarnia to a good stage, I can now focus on fleshing out the Napega system.
St. Jacques was drawn up during my time at Imperial College London. From a year group of 200 people to an institution with around 9,000 undergraduates, this was ripe for a metro map. Unlike at school, where people tend to stick with their year group, at university it is encouraged (and expected) for you to socialise with people all across the faculty through nights out, societies and clubs! I had just had about enough of school; Year 13 was an utter drab (spending 18 hours with the same people in my classes truly grated), so I totally immersed myself in the social aspect of university (except for nightclubs!) Along with my coursemates, and the many people I met at bars, clubs and house parties, I was a regular member for three societies during my time at Imperial: baseball, dodgeball and the Afro-Caribbean societies.
Funnily enough, I never intended for this map to be created, I initially came to university saying to myself: ‘I have to take this very seriously – no time for silly childish stuff like this, studies come first’. That didn’t last long; within a month I was already sketching the map out. This time, the system would be created from the start – all lines included. A circular line would be the main feature, with other lines within. There was a curious outer line outside the circle, which would eventually be developed into the Overground system.
140 people on my course, many baseball, dodgeball teammates and an eventful year with Afro-Caribbean society, this boded for a large metropolis. The chemists would be in the centre of the city, people on my floor in halls would have their dedicated line running to the south, the baseballers would be on the outer orbital line, the dodgeballers had their own area in the north, and Imperial ACS members would occupy the north-west.
University didn’t go as well as I had hoped, I had a particularly shocking second year where I failed four exams. Too much time partying and going to every society event, not enough time in the library. Due to this, I was bumped from a five-year Masters course to a three-year Bachelors degree, and I left Imperial with a 2:2. Two years of potential friends to be made, cut off. The St. Jacques Metro Map, up to version 4 at this stage, was hardly filled in. There were a considerable number of stations in the centre, but there were many sections of lines outside the city that were barely populated.
Imperial Chemistry Finalists Dinner - I crashed the party. I graduated one year earlier than this brave, smart lot - I could not continue on to a Masters after failing exams.
Alas, after three years of studying, just 358 people had a spot on the map. These people made enough of an impression on me to grant them a station. I met many others; however, these were fleeting encounters at nightclubs and parties.
St. Jacques would become an all-purpose map from then on. Groups of other people were added on to the map during the awkward period after I finished university, but before I got my first proper job and officially started my adult life. People and family in Corsica, family in America, as well as people from school who I was close with, and other people from school who I met up with quite regularly. Even internet friends found themselves on the map, a section for fellow Deal or No Deal fanatics and a small section for a few Metanet members (fellow fans of N: The Way Of The Ninja. Remember that game?)
Life happened, taking a more positive turn. With university behind me, I eventually landed a job, and with solid foundations I returned to baseball and eventually softball. Hence, co-workers and teammates would soon find themselves with stations. A once relatively empty map was now in danger of filling up!
Version 5 had to be created due to the huge swathes of Raiders I had met, along with a new job (I got a role with London Underground and wanted my co-workers to have stations on the Underground, and there was barely any space left). More lines and extensions to existing lines were incorporated, and this started to become a common theme. Map space was now a scarce resource.
As they did with the map, Raiders took over Pride London.
The hand-drawn map was completed in 2021. Even then, there have been further developments with the digital maps, and the current digital map has a few extra Overground lines and tramways. (I don’t have the time to do a new hand-drawn map and do not wish to change the current hand-drawn map). Still, there is a danger of space running out if I added everyone I met. Out of the 1,766 stations on the map, 1,609 have been filled, and 1,295 people that I know personally have been represented. Some stations remain, including some tram stops as well as plenty of Crossrail stops in Zones 6 and 7 - not very appealing places!
Many have seen my St. Jacques Metro Map – for my well fledged-out fantasy city. It’s my magnum opus, of sorts. So, why the need for a new map?
At the time I started to create the Zafarnia map, I was in an era of thorough ennui with the St. Jacques Map. I felt a lot more inspired developing a brand-new city’s metro system. I tried to re-invigorate the St. Jacques interest by developing the bus network, but at present I have no desire to pursue this further. Perhaps later in the year, my inspiration will return.
The hand-drawn St. Jacques map will always be classic. Charming, stained with the sweat, frustration, and utter time it took (one good thing came out of the lockdown era, at least). I still am quite proud of it, thinking of the best way to preserve it for time.
Regarding the digital version, though it makes the map look neater and more uniform, it’s far too inspired by the TfL maps – so much so that it leads to much confusion upon an initial glance. Using the Johnstone typeface, to the same design features, the logo is also a pastiche of the Transport for London roundel, designed as such so I don’t have to worry about copyright issues (though the roundel was always intended for St. Jacques in my mind).
People commonly jump to the conclusion that it’s a map based on London, so they try looking for London stations (admittedly there are 17 existing London stations on the St. Jacques Map, see if you can find them all). I get asked questions such as ‘where’s South Kensington on the map?’ ‘Is that the Piccadilly Line?’
When people work out that this map is not based on London, but for a fantasy city, there is an expectation that people are placed on the map relative to where they live in London. Someone who lives in south London would expect their station to be in the southern part of the map, but this is not often the case. St. Jacques stations tend to be placed in locations for a particular reason, usually as part of a set group of people or dedicated line. For more information, refer to the St. Jacques map webpage.
For the Zafarnia map, I wanted to come up with a completely original design, with not one iota of TfL influence. I experimented with different background colours and using 30/60 degree angles instead of the usual 45 degree angle design. I came up with a few of my own ideas, and took inspiration from looking through the TransitMaps (transitmap.net) blog.
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Shown above: some of my draft designs for the map. The 30 degree angles do look interesting, I'm looking to incoroporate this into my next map, Project Napega.
Side note: The St. Jacques map has featured on this website! Version 4, to be exact had its own entry. The blog author took the map from my Flickr page, and from their words, had been following the St. Jacques project for a while. I was never notified and discovered this blog post by myself around the time I had finished the current hand-drawn version. I do wonder if TransitMaps has seen the latest version, which is a huge improvement on version 4! https://transitmap.net/st-jacques/
One map in particular on this blog caught my eye – an unofficial NYC Ferries map by Evelyn Fischer. https://transitmap.net/nyc-ferries-evelyn-fischer/ This map was quite beautiful – a relatively dark background and brightly coloured lines which popped out beautifully on the diagram.
This map would be my largest inspiration, and a similar design would be incorporated for the Zafarnia map. This time, with the lines on a gray background instead of a blue background, using a different typeface and different representations for station markers and interchanges.
As always, I plan my maps through rough handdrawn scribbles with coloured pencils, and Zafarnia was no different. It took at least fifteen tries until I drew something I was happy with. Slowly, this sketch would be transformed digitally into a new map, which would eventually be finalised. There, I could start the process of adding stations.
Initial rough sketch for the map is shown above.
I was quite happy with the new design, it may have its flaws but it looks quite striking. Besides, dark mode on apps has become popular, and graphic design software tends to default using a dark interface. The typeface I initially chose was something I was not 100% happy with, and I made the decision to change to classic Helvetica for the current version of the map. It gives the diagram a little more class (and New York doesn't own Helvetica!)
Design idiom finalised, the map starts to be sketched out. Initially the lines were a lot thicker! It would prove to be tough to add stations without the map looking incredibly busy and cramped! I showed the map in this form to someone and very useful feedback was given to make the lines narrower. For some reason I used the name Dylan Mulvaney as a placeholder... hope she is doing well now.
Version 1 was released in March 2024, just prior to the softball season - with the intention of updating the maps twice a year, one at the end of the outdoor season. You can view this version here. Using Transport as the typeface for station labels, the map housed 496 softballers.
As intended, after a chaotic season of softball, meeting tons of new people, I would finish the present version of the map at the end of the season, where I would add 187 new players. The font was changed, I have added an index, and as an extra bonus, this being a softball and baseball map, the terminii of Express Lines and Rail Lines are named after some of my favourite MLB players.
The St. Jacques Metro Map mirrors the property crisis in London. Back in the day, there was tons of space on the map, and property wasn’t insanely expensive in London as it is now. As the city and map have developed over the years, more and more people have arrived. Station space is sparse – almost no chance in the centre (I very rarely add stations in central St. Jacques now unless there is a very good reason). Try buying a decent property in zone 1. Interchange stations represent even more valuable real estate.
You’ll have more chance buying a property, or getting a station, out of zone 1, but space is always running out. There’s always a shortage. Some people share a property, and there are some stations which are for two people. You could go for an apartment or flat instead of a house in London, or get a tram stop in St. Jacques instead of a rail station. These days, it’s hard to find land to build on in London anymore (without destroying existing buildings), and there is very little scope now for extensions or new lines in St. Jacques (I can’t really destroy any existing infrastructure), which is really stretching demand. I have added four new tramways since the hand-drawn version, and with the demand, almost all of them have filled out very, very quickly.
Some people have had to move out of London into the outskirts, and parallel to that, some people have had to settle for stations in Zone 6 and 7 (outside of the St. Jacques city limits). This is mostly all that is viable available concerning rail stations.
Only a few lucky people have more than one station, representing the bourgeoisie who own more than one property in London.
What’s the long-term solution? England could always invest in developing other cities, but that isn’t happening. However, I sure as hell can create a new city, admittedly this will be a lot easier for me to do! Hence, Zafarnia has been created.
With most of the stations in central St. Jacques being filled in early on in the maps existence, my current friends tend to find themselves outside of the centre. True, there are tons of great locations outside of central London, in fact I tend to avoid central London when I can except for work, too full of tourists. There is nonetheless an expectation that people want to be in the centre of the city! I have had complaints from people that their stations were right near the end of the line, in Zone 5, where they should have been in Zone 1 – in fact many close friends currently find themselves in zone 4 or 5.
Life happens, and friendships fade away. I haven’t kept in contact with many of my course mates in chemistry, though I would like to do this more. Counting the number of fellow students and professors that were assigned stations in central St. Jacques – I make it 194 people. Since 2020 of these 194 people, I have only interacted with 23 of them (including one rather tense argument on Facebook), whether online or in real life. Of these 23 people, I have only kept in regular contact with seven of them.
Perhaps in times, more connections will be re-kindled; however, it is nearing 10 years since I left university. People move on with their lives, and I’m sure a not insignificant number have left the country. Surprisingly, with softball and baseball being a huge part of my life at present, I have not been in regular contact with a single teammate until this year. Perhaps I left the Imperial Falcons Baseball Club in bad blood when I left university. But there is one player from the Falcons who now plays softball in London - now playing for Bangers & Smash. It's great to see him (and talk about the memories with the Falcons!)
I haven't seen any Falcons of my time play baseball after university. Where they at?
I met a few dodgeball players who played in my time at university when I returned to dodgeball briefly, joining London Storm. My goodness, the standard of dodgeball there is incredible, perhaps a little daunting for a novice (though their social sessions are very, very fun and a good way to get some exercise during the week). Imperial College and London Storm seem to be quite intertwined, often when I do on occasion make it to the social session, there are many current Imperial students in attendance. They are full of energy any get me out all the time. I think it’s a sign I’m starting to get older.
Though dodgeball is no longer a big part in my life, namely as I'm getting older, more prone to injury, and find it very hard to keep up with the younger players, I was speaking to more dodgeballers than baseballers post-uni, even though baseball was my main society at university! I don’t have much of close kin with the Imperial ACS members, though we do like each other’s posts on Instagram every now and again.
It would definitely be worth rekindling some old friendships. Perhaps in the future…
Zone 1 is therefore full of people who I have not spoken to for almost 10 years. I think this odd phenomenon can be represented best by this example. Travel two stops on Line 4 from Jacques Central. This station, an interchange station no less, was for someone in my university halls. I liked him at first, but it dawned on me that he was hardly my biggest fan. Every time I would try to speak to this person, they would make the strangest facial expressions in response mostly of despondent irritation. And he's right there in the centre of the city.
Not a single softballer finds themselves in Zone 1 on the St. Jacques Map, considering as this is now my most closeknit community. With that cognisance, a new map was required. St. Jacques was outdated. Hence, Zafarnia was created.
I started slowpitch softball officially in 2016 (I had dabbled previously, dating all the way back to 2005!) This branched out from my baseball ‘career’ which I began in 2012 at university, as an Imperial Falcon. I didn’t leave the Falcons on very good terms (there was a lot of drama involving me being stuck in right-field), but I still wanted to relive my university days now I was in full-time work. I joined the London Mets club and made it onto their new Single-A team, the London Mercenaries. Consisting of a close group of fresh new players, many from the Baseball for Beginners programme, I was one of the late additions drafted fresh from university. It was great to be back on the field, and with that brought the greatest irony. With the frustration and arguments stemmed from being perpetually stuck at right-field when playing baseball at university, even during friendly games; I became a solid leftfielder for the Mercenaries and my love for outfield officially began. I did not play a single game in right-field in league from 2016 until 2021, and even those were very rare occurrences (once a season, and in most cases not even for a full game as I was moved elsewhere within two innings).
Fun fact, my first ever softball tournament, at Farnham Park, was in 2014 – long before I joined the Raiders. A much familiar face organised this – the National University Softball Championship, run by none other than Liz Knight. I was representing the Imperial Falcons. I can vividly remember that it was an absolute blast and was more enjoyable than the baseball games. I got to play two softball tournaments with the Imperial Falcons. It also was a very rare instance of me being away from right-field, since ‘outfield is more important in softball than baseball’, according to the captain (he never did have much faith in me, it surely wrecked my confidence…) the first tournament we didn’t have any women and were rightly penalised, so for our second appearance, women joined our roster. I think that tournament is the greatest contender for fun baseball/softball game I ever played during my university days. Was it a hint which would reveal my adoration for slowpitch softball?
One of the best days with the Falcons - my second time at Farnham Park, when Field 1 as we know it today didn't exist.
In 2016 my outfield neighbour Tom always stood guard in centerfield. As it would turn out, he also played for a softball club, the London Raiders. He recommended that I check it out. The softball tournies in 2014 were a lot of fun, and I was looking to make some more friends and build some more new social circles. The London Raiders were an LGBT club, and I had recently come out (perhaps it was obvious to outsiders, but it's always good to officially come out). This would be a perfect group to join, at the right time too. I attended the ‘Meet the Raiders’ party and that was more than enough to convince me to become a member. A lovely bunch of people they were. They would be one of my close social groups, to this day. It wasn’t just softball, I would be going to their houses for some games nights, and even went camping with a few of them.
It was utterly ludicrous at first, but I had initially assigned a section of map for the Raiders. This would be a small slither of map between line 8 and line 11 in the northeast outskirts of the city. It quickly transpired that this was not close to enough space for this group of people. As proof, check the east and southeast of the map, under the river – there’s your answer. New lines and tramways have had to be created specifically for the Raiders (and eventually, more softballers). To this day, there are just over 200 Raiders on the St. Jacques Map (and a further 130 other softballers).
Orange days.
As the seasons ticked on, I played for more teams, and met more people. It's amazing how many people play this beautiful game, and it's so good to see the game expanding (as well as baseball). I am very glad to have designed this new map, it has been more than worth it.
The softball community is immense, and the 683 softballers who have stations is only a small representation of the sheer size of the community.
The St. Jacques Map had to be expanded over time since its first iteration. The Overground, Trams and TLR were introduced, and more lines were added (including a People Mover) - until it just wasn’t feasible to add any further lines. The 1,766-station behemoth of a map is almost full up, most remaining spaces are Crossrail stations in Zones 6 and 7. The only good real estate in St. Jacques is mostly of the city limits, and I’ve become more selective with who I’ve included now. (Some of the remaining stations are the termini of the Crossrail Lines, so far, far away from the city. I’m not sure they even count).
The Zafarnia map currently has capacity for 921 softballers, with 685 stations having been filled in. 236 unclaimed stations remain, so there is still some space and availability. However, will this be the case in a couple of years? Will the danger of overpopulation be looming quicker than we think?
Softball at Prague - this photo was all of the teams from the UK. That'll fill a map...
187 new softballers were added for the October 2024 edition. A busy 2025 season could take up a significant proportion of the remaining map real estate.
One difficulty is my insistence in keeping stations in zones (e.g. Reading having its own line). Some zones are out of space already, so this must be considered for the future. Only the south-east remains as an area to introduce more viable team ‘zones’.
London Raiders, being the biggest club, will cause some issues as most of the stops on the individual ‘Raider’ lines have been taken (don’t get me started on the constant movement and re-organisation of our league teams). I haven’t been able to meet so many new Raiders as much as I used to, but I always try and keep some space available for new players.
How will I futureproof this map? The following options are available:
One or two-station expansions at both ends of most lines will add capacity for around 60 new stations. Station squeezes are possible where there are gaps on the map graphically, or stations could be placed closer together, though it won’t look as aesthetically pleasing.
Certain lines may be able to accommodate more significant extensions, in particular:
Line 1 could be extended a couple of stops south-westwards.
Line 2 could be expanded a few stops north-eastwards (towards the T6 tramway).
Line 5 could potentially be extended north, up to High Tower and the T7 terminus.
Line 6A could branch off south-east from the loop. This will likely be the first extension I implement for the next edition of the map. The proposal will be to run south of Jones’ Panthers, towards Porte Terblanche, interchanging with both branches of Line 5 (Eddyvean is likely going to be moved to one of these stations). An extra river crossing interchanging with Line 13A, likely terminating on the Lin 10/R interchange, but there is scope to run this ultimately to the Line 12/D/L interchange.
Line 7/Line 13A re-working – from Bevenzed, Line 13A can take over the Hashimborough branch, with Line 7 continuing eastwards (towards the Line B/Tramway T5 interchange). Line 13A could also get a small bifurcation too at the end of the line.
Line 8 could extend further south-westwards.
Line 10 could extend further north-westwards from Horder-Korycki, with an interchange to Line V.
Line 11 could extend further south-westwards towards Tramway T9.
Line 11A could extend at both ends, significantly towards the west (up to the Line E/Tramway T9 interchange), and on the east end, could cross the river and take over the Line 6 branch to Martinjean which will give space to a few stations.
Line 12 could extend further south-eastwards (towards the Line B/Tramway T5 interchange).
Line 12A could extend from Porte Magda, south westwards (towards the Gabbypoole area) and northwards to New Romin.
Line 13 could extend further north-westwards a couple of stops, though I’d prefer to avoid this unless it is in conjunction with the extension of Line 12A.
Line 14 could either take over the path of Tramway T8, or extend south-westwards, or even bifurcate to serve both.
Line 18 could extend westwards (in place of Line 10), as Bristol is more in danger of running out of space compared to Bracknell.
This could potentially add a further 50-60 stations.
Further to these plans, more drastic action may have to be taken in the future:-
Inclusion of a Zone 4 which fleshes out the Express Service and Rail Lines, some Metro lines could be expanded there too.
Grand Zafarnia Express around the current termini of most Metro Lines (mirroring the Grand Paris Express)
Conversion of Tramway T6 to an extra Bis line
None of the above shall take place until all the less drastic expansion plans have been exhausted. Who knows what softball adventures I’ll have in the future.
