PASSENGER-ORIENTED ERGONOMIC DRAWING

OF DIAGRAM MAP FOR CHINESE RAILWAY

PASSENGERS’ LINES

Junmin Yi

Department of Management Sciences, Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen 361024, China

Keywords: Diagram, Network, Ergonomics, Graph.

Abstract: The diagram maps for passengers’ lines of China Railways presents a basic reference for decades, however,

it can’t meet the demand of Chinese passengers today and it can’t catch the pace of the achievements and

expansion of China Railways. Based on a marketing perspective for caring passengers, brand new diagram

maps of Chinese Railway and its High-speed Railway (CRH) with a planning horizon up to the year of 2020

are designed and drawn by using the theories and methods from both the subjects of ergonomics, visual

communication design and graph theory. These graphs will convey a new image and modern information of

CRH to attract potential passengers, and help to improve the railway service quality.

1 INTRODUCTION

The diagram map for railway lines serves all walks

of passengers with different literacy and

background, and shows them the origin, destination

and transfer station quickly from China’s dense and

expanding railway networks. These maps convey the

connectivity and convenience of railway networks,

and served as part of the service image of

passengers’ transport. The maps are published on

booking offices, travel agencies, timetables, books,

newspapers and even Internet. However, the old

diagram map (MOR, 2009) for passengers’ lines had

decades of history. Owing to the rigidness of lines,

shortage of aesthetics, lack of the convenience, the

old diagram is hard to be recognized by normal

passengers, hence it can not be adapted to the

requirement of modern transportation and the

railway passengers. With the quick development of

Railway system, especially the emerging high-speed

railways network in China (Bai and Qian, 2010), the

diagram map needs to be considered from a system

perspective urgently to help the improvement of

railway service. Based on the service and

ergonomics, with integrating the theories and

methods of marketing, graph theory, human factors

and communications, the railway diagram map will

be redesigned comprehensively and systematically,

making it the “window” of China railway and an

important and integrated part of the Chinese Railway

- Corporate Identification System (CR-CIS). Thus, it

will convey a brand-new image of Chinese Railways

to all the tourists and passengers both from domestic

and abroad, in the modernization and advancing

drive of high-speed and service quality.

2 THE DRAWBACK OF PRESENT

MAP

The present diagram map of Chinese Railways is

multiple additions and revisions of traditional

railway network. It exhibits the connectivity of

railway network, but there isn’t a system planning

from the beginning, and it lies in the following

drawbacks.

Inconvenience to the Passengers. The old maps

were not drawn basing on the passengers’ view;

passengers with different vision and knowledge

levels can not find out their starting, ending and

transferring points and on-going lines quickly when

they look through the complex network map of

irregular lines and dots.

Non-straightened Backbone Lines. The high-

speed nonstop straight-forwardness and importance

of the main lines isn’t prominent in the old maps.

Such as the busiest and most important Beijing-

Shanghai railway line is zigzagged with seven to

389

Yi J..

PASSENGER-ORIENTED ERGONOMIC DRAWING OF DIAGRAM MAP FOR CHINESE RAILWAY PASSENGERS’ LINES.

DOI: 10.5220/0003590003890393

In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (SSSCM-2011), pages 389-393

ISBN: 978-989-8425-54-6

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

thirteen segments in different editions of the

traditional railway diagram. Since the diagram maps

are not proportional diagrams, the backbone lines

should be straight lines to reflect the directed

relations of transportation.

Shortage of Aesthetics. The traditional diagram

with only rigid straight segment lines was drawn by

engineers, and usually done without a bit sense of

beauty. These segments and their arbitrary angle

between connected segments reveal the old

mechanical era image. The rigid segments network

without any curves inspires readers nothing of

aesthetics and modern service.

In all, the traditional diagram was focused on

engineering but hardly with the consideration of

passengers needs, it is not accordance with the basic

theory of human communications and factors, and it

is inconvenient for passengers to read the map,

hence it is not functioned the illustration of diagram

maps to passengers.

3 THE BASIS AND REFERENCE

FOR IMPROVEMENT

The railway diagram maps illustrate the connectivity

between stations; it would be drawn better on

network graph with nodes and arcs rather than the

proportional geometric map coordinated to the

geographic sites. By network graph, the railway

stations are nodes and the lines between stations are

arcs which can be straight lines or curves by the

graph layout. A good example is the metro diagram

maps of large cities, such as Paris and New York.

3.1 Metro Diagram Maps and

Ergonomics

For a metro diagram map, such as the Paris Metro

Map, it is a planar graph with different colours for

passengers’ convenience, and is designed based on

ergonomics and visual communication theories

(Sanders and McCormick, 2001). The main

characteristics of these diagrams are list as follow.

Colour Usage. Colours are used for a quick

finding of expected nodes and lines from the

network and colours enhance passenger’s cognition

and memory with each metro line a unique

identification colour. Nowadays the metro maps in

large Chinese cities are done in such style, but it is

hard to find such style in the Railway system.

More Vertical and Horizontal Lines. The vertical

and horizontal lines are used to illustrate the

connectivity, so it is easier to make and read the

graph and fits to human cognition intuition. The

slope lines will be used to the least; and a 45 degree

slope line is used in case of necessity. In such a

degree, there will be a good supporting and visual

effect for the graph. And if there is a turning corner

of two segments without a node, then the corner will

be rounded to smooth curve.

Nodes Representation. In the metro maps,

different nodes represent different types of stations

for a quick cognition by passengers. These

representations includes: emphasized circles for

origins and destinations of a line, solid dots for non-

transfer nodes and circles for transfer nodes. A small

transfer station is represented by a small circle, but

large and multiple transfer station is represented by a

rounded rectangle or a complex shape with rounded

rectangle and circles to show stations’ connectivity.

Text in the Map. Although different lines are

distinguished by identification colours, the text for

stations should be in single colour, namely black, for

consistence and striking in reading; while main

stations are emphasized by bold font style.

3.2 The Theory of Graph and Network

By the theory of graph and network (Hu, 2009), a

connected graph can represent the railway network

of a country or area while the station acted as node

and railway segment as the edge. Recent years with

the emerging study of complex networks, some

scholars begin the research of a scale-free railway

network in China. In the empirical analysis by Li

and Cai (Li and Cai, 2007), the statistical properties

of the China Railway Network consisting of 3915

nodes (train stations) and 22259 edges (railway

segments). The network displays the small-world

property, has the fingerprint of a small characteristic

shortest-path length, 3.5, accompanied by a high

degree of clustering, 0.835. That is after an average

of 3.5 times of transfer, any of two stations in the

Chinese Railways network can be reached. Here, our

main purpose is to study the connectivity of main

nodes with multiple edges, and this connectivity is

the basis for the scale-free graph. And the location

and distance of nodes are considered afterward.

4 DESIGN IDEAS

AND STRATEGIES

The design of the diagram map for passengers’ line

should be guided systematically by the theories of

ergonomics and visual communication (Sanders and

McCormick, 2001). A concise, elegant, striking

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390

diagram map can be achieved with integration and

convenience for passengers, based on the status quo

and long-term planning of Chinese Railways

network. Our design is shown in Figure 1 (Yi, Yuan

and Zhang, 2010) with the following strategies.

4.1 Based on the Long Term Planning

The railway construction is booming in China these

years with leap in line length and network expansion,

an updated diagram map is needed to reflect the

planning and development. Our design is based on

the Revised Mid and Long term Railway Planning

with a horizon up to the year of 2020 (MOR, 2008)

and some Five-Year plans before. It focuses on the

network connection and grid space to meet the

requirement of present framework and future

development.

4.2 Straightening of Backbone Lines

Based on the planning of the dual four main Vertical

and Horizontal (4V4H) high-speed passenger lines, a

backbone network is formed with these straightened

segments, such as vertically Harbin-Dalian Line,

Tianjin-Nanjing section of Beijing-Shanghai Line,

Shijiazhuang-Guangzhou section of Beijing-

Guangzhou Line, and horizontally Xuzhou-Baoji

section of Gansu-Jiangsu Line, Jinghua-Changsha

section of Shanghai-Kunming Line, Shanghai-

Nanjing section of Beijing-Shanghai Line Jinan-

Qingdao and Shijiazhuang-Dezhou sections of

Qingdao-Taiyuan Line, Wuhan-Nejiang section of

Yangtze Line. Also, it straightens most of the dual

eight main Vertical and Horizontal railway lines

(8V8H) by the finished tenth Five-Year Plan such as

the Beijing-Kowloon, Lanzhou-Xinjiang, Datong-

Zhanjiang, Baotou-Liuzhou (Baotou-Guiyang

section), and Lanzhou-Kunming (Chengdu-

Guangtong section) Lines, and other existing

railways such as Linhe-Yangpingguang, Wuwei-

Dezhou, Jiding-Hami, Wuhai-Qinghuangdao,

Manzhouli-Suifenhe, Bihong-Baihe Line. Even the

Datong-Qinghuangdao Line mainly for cargo

transport is represented in straight line on our

Figure 1: Our design of the diagram map for Chinese Railways passengers’ lines.

PASSENGER-ORIENTED ERGONOMIC DRAWING OF DIAGRAM MAP FOR CHINESE RAILWAY PASSENGERS'

LINES

391

diagram map. Non vertical or horizontal lines are

laid in 45 degree orthogonal with curved corner for

streamline effect. In all, the diagram map conveys a

backbone straightforward high-speed concept, which

Chinese Railways is undergoing.

4.3 Line Types and Colouring

According to the principles of ergonomics and visual

communication, four types of line and colour are

used to classifying different types of railway. A red

line with line width of 1 is for the latest CRH High-

speed railway service, while a dashed one for such

railway under construction, an example is the new

Wuhan-Guangzhou CRH line paralleling to the old

ones (one of the 8V in pink with line width of 0.6,

while 8H in green). A watery blue line with line

width of 0.3 is for planned lines while black one for

existing line with rated speed less than 200 km/hour.

The colours are chosen by railway tradition and

general colour meanings. The ratio of line width is

1:0.6:0.3, which has a clear variation.

4.4 The Nodes

The nodes are on the top priority for passengers to

find the origin and destination from the map quickly.

By considering of the complexity, robustness and

dependence between stations in Chinese railway

network (Derrible and Kennedy, 2010, Wang, Y-L

et al, 2009), in our design, five categories of node

are classified based on the stations in old diagram

map and planned new stations.

 Category 1. Beijing is represented by a five-

pointed star in a large circle for the normal

meaning of state capital and top railway hub.

 Category 2. Cities where railway administrative

bureau seated are represented by a dual large

circle, these 17 cites are both provincial capital

now.

 Category 3. Other provincial capital cities and

five large sub-provincial level cities are

represented by a large circle.

 Category 4. Cities in the intersection of several

lines, especially with both normal line and

CRH line are represented by a long circle.

 Category 5. Other stations are represented by a

small circle.

There are several hundred railway stations under

construction in China’s railway boom today, thus

there are large cities rather than stations to be shown

in the map for it is hard to show all the passenger

stations for a large city in the map. For example,

there are Beijing Station, Beijing West, South and

North stations in Beijing City only and Wuchang,

Hankou and Wuhan stations in Wuhan city now. The

structure of one-city-multiple-station can be

summarized by a table by the side of the map, as

shown in Figure 2.

4.5 Font for Nodes

The font of stations and cities are necessary and

meaningful to read the diagram. In our design, the

font is always in black san serif for clear reading,

and there are four types with two fonts. Type 1 is for

Category 1 and 2 cities aforementioned by Microsoft

Yahei font with font height of 5; Type 2 for

Category 3 cities by Youyuan font with font height

of 5; Type 3 for Category 4 by Youyuan font with

font height of 3.5; and Type 4 for Category 5

stations by Microsoft Yahei font with font height of

2.5. The ratio of font height is 1:0.7:0.5 close to the

golden section, which has a clear differentiation.

These arrangements with broad and fine line,

single and double circle and large and small size

confirm to ergonomic principles, and the total layout

is striking for passengers’ quick and meaningful

reference.

5 DESIGN RESULTS

The finished diagram map includes 370 cities /

stations in a 166

・

112 lattice, with space for more

stations in the future. The map reveals several

interesting findings.

 In general, there are more horizontal lines than

vertical ones, but the North to South vertical

backbone lines are more strong and in evidence.

 Slope lines lie more in the West and the South,

with a reflection of less orthogonal and straight

lines in these mountainous regions.

 There is a distinct difference between the South

and the North by the Gansu-Jiangsu Line. There

are more straight lines in the North, while more

curves in the South, and especially in the vast

Northwest China, the sparse railway lines can

be drawn just straightforward. This is consistent

with the analysis of Wang’s Geographic coarse

graining analysis of the railway network of

China (Wang et al., 2008).

 By density, the highest lies in Northeast China

and The Yangtze River delta. While there are

more lines by planning and under construction

in the regions of East China (South) and

Southwest China, which reflects the potential

demand of railway service.

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392

Figure 2: The diagram map of CR with one-city-multiple-station table (in black and white).

For the nodes in the diagram map, it can be treated

as vertices in graph theory and their degree can be

applied to explain the connecting relationship

Beijing as the top railway hub has a vertex degree of

11, which means there are eleven railway lines

started from Beijing.

Next, Nanjing and Xi’an both have a degree of

10, and other hubs, Shanghai, Guangzhou,

Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Chongqing and Chengdu have a

degree of 8 or 9. These hubs are also large cities in

China with great population and passengers.

The drawing is made with AutoCAD, it can be

further beautified with art perspective for better

image of Chinese Railways, and a series of map can

be created for the demand of all walks of passengers

and of railway system.

In conclusion, the new design is customer-

oriented and focused on service and ergonomics, it

will convey a new image and modern information of

CRH to attract present and potential passengers, and

in some way help to improve the railway service

quality.

REFERENCES

Bai, C-E, Qian, Y. Infrastructure development in China:

The cases of electricity, highways, and railways,

Journal of Comparative Economics, 38(1): 34-51,

2010.

Derrible, S., Kennedy, C. The complexity and robustness

of metro networks, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics

and its Applications, 389(17): 3678-3691, 2010.

Hu, Y.C. Operations Research and its Application, fifth

Edition. Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2009.

Li, W., Cai, X. Empirical analysis of a scale-free railway

network in China, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics

and its Applications, 382(2): 693–703, 2007.

MOR (Transportation Bureau, Ministry of Railway). The

diagram map for passengers’ line in Chinese

Railways. Beijing: Chinese Railway Press, 2009.

MOR (The Ministry of Railway, PRC). Mid and long term

planning of railway network, a revision in 2008.

Beijing, 2008.

Wang, Y-L et al. Empirical analysis of dependence

between stations in Chinese railway network, Physica

A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 388(14):

2949-2955, 2009.

Sanders, M. S., McCormick, E. J. Human Factors in

Engineering and Design, 7

edition. McGraw-Hill,

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railway network of China, Physica A: Statistical

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2008.

Yi, J., Yuan, H. and Zhang, Q. Drawing of China Railway

Passengers’ Line Diagram Map Based on Passengers’

Convenience and Ergonomics. Chinese Railways 9: 4-

7, 2010.

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