TfL has (secretly) made a geographically accurate tube map

Click here for the full-sized map

It's no secret that Londoners love a good map, particularly the lovely folks over at Mapping London blog (the clue is in the name). Thanks to their unfailing enthusiasm for all things map-related, they've managed to dig up a secret TfL tube map that was previously unavailable to the public until its existence was revealed by Freedom of Information request - and it's pretty damn cool.

It's the geographically accurate TfL connections map, which might sound boring but bear with us. You know how the tube map gives you an unrealistic impression of how near or far away things are from each other in the real world? This totally solves that problem. The map shows tube lines, overground lines, mainline rail lines, as well as roads, neighbourhoods, parks and rivers. It's from 2014 so it's slightly out of date but it also maps out some future lines, including new Overground branches and Crossrail.

If you zoom in on central London, you can see that if there's one thing it ain't short on, it's public transport: 

But once you get out to the sticks in zone 6, you can see there's a lot of green spaces and, er, not a whole lot of transport options available: 

Ok, so it might get a bit overcomplicated if TfL completely replaced the existing tube map with this one - but it's pretty handy for those with no sense of direction and, aesthetically speaking, it's definitely easier on the eye.

Embrace your inner tube map geek and explore the full map.

Want more cool maps? This tube map shows how inaccessible the Underground is.

And this kids' map belongs on every London-lover's wall.