James Avery’s blog

OK then, here goes. There’s a lot of explanation to do even on this half finished version, but I hope you can see where it’s going. The basic concept is a bit of an anti-dote to what you can currently see on Flightmapping.com, and makes the following assumptions:

• Imagine a futuristic world, around 2050 (probably closer to the end of the 21st Century, but how many of us will still be around by then?). Maybe I should make it 2075 when I hope to be 100! Correction - I will either be 100 or dead!
• The high extraction and carbon mitigation cost of oil and widespread availability of renewable energy make long distance high speed train travel significantly more favourable than air travel for the majority of passengers on the majority of routes.
• By 2049, the 100 year old Geneva convention becomes obsolete as conflicts between countries are entirely based on economic prowess, rather than military skirmishes. (Perhaps George W Bush will posthumously be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for making it impossible for any democratic government to ever make a case for war again).
• Most countries around the world have a Shengen type agreement, or it is at least possible to take trains freely across borders without the need for long and complex customs inspections.
• Advances in tunneling technology make a link between Indonesia and Australia possible, whilst entente between Taiwan and China also connects these territories, and a United Korea is connected to Japan (the latter project having already merited discussion between the two parties as of 2009).
• The idea of a Transatlantic tunnel is slowly moving from science fiction to serious proposal - although Futuretimeline.net currently puts such a mammoth engineering task as a project for 2090.

Draft of a World Tube Map for 2050

Mapping style

• The map is inspired by the famous Tube maps of Harry Beck from the 1930s, although a number of additional developments are added:
• Countries are re-sized according to their ‘current rail relevance’ - an index made up of numerous different factors, including annual tourist spend, population and kilometres travelled by rail.
• Major world cities are situated along grid lines. Originally developed as a ‘chess board map’ featuring a grid of 9×9 dots, the World Tube Map is expanded to a grid of 13×9, to fit fully onto a sheet of Ax paper, and allow for the fact that much of the world’s developed area sits on a single ‘axis of Airbus TLS’ encompassing Tokyo, London and San Francisco - taking in Chicago, New York, Amsterdam, Berlin, Moscow and Shanghai along the way.
• The full version of the map is being produced to print at A0 scale, although it is envisaged that colour prints will be produced at A1, and a compact version will be made to fit a sheet of A4 paper, or a standard widescreen computer screen or TV display.
• The current version of the map uses differing city ’dot’ sizes according to significance, although these may become uniform as the map develops.
• The thicker lines represent existing, proposed or ‘likely to be developed’ routes which are seen as most suitable for a high speed network at current or near-future speeds of up to 400mph. Thinner lines would either need to operate at super-fast speeds in order to compete with air travel, or would be more likely to be kept as conventional rail. 

Future developments

• World Knowledge Map - Using a similar tube map style, plotting the major developments in culture, science and technology, and the people and companies behind these developments.
• World Thought Map (train of thought) - similar to the Knowledge map, following ‘trains of thought’ from one place to the next, making connections through naming, cultural or historical events and people.
• World Film Map.
• World Airport Code Map.