Greater Greater Washington is having a unofficial contest to redesign the Metro map. The real redesign will come from The Metropolitan Washington Area Transit Authority in a few years, but like mocking up new team uniforms, creating a new transit map can be fun. I’d probably go for Map B or Map E.

I looked all the entries over and I was kind of surprised that nobody suggested moving to a numbered/lettered system like New York’s subways or Boston’s Green T line. I think with the all changes coming and lines going to different places, that time is coming. For example, here is what I’d do:

For trains running the length of the line, I’d give them a letter with the line color:

R – Red Line, every stop
B – Blue Line, every stop
O – Orange Line, every stop
Y – Yellow Line, every stop
G – Green Line, every stop
S – Silver Line, every stop

For trains that do not go the length of the line or divert to different lines, I’d use numbers with the line color:

These are hypothetical routes

1 – Grosvenor to Silver Spring
2 – Franconia-Springfield to Gallery Place/Chinatown
3 – West Falls Church to Stadium/Armory
4 – Huntingdon to Mount Vernon Square
5 – Anacostia to Fort Totten
6 – Dulles Aiport to Tysons-McLean

As for the design of these identifiers, I’d go with an appropriately colored square.