Behind me, that's the new Battersea Power Station
station, tube station.
Along with Nine Elms, just up the road
they will form part of the Northern line extension,
coming later this year.
We've discussed that before.
A change though, that has already happened,
as of today, as of this week,
is that Kennington, also just up the road
has changed from being a Zone 2 station
to a zone 1-slash-2 tube station.
And boy, does that cause fun on the tube map.
If you like maps, you're going to love this video.
This all stems from the fact that the two new stations,
Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms,
are going to be in Zone 1, when really,
geographically speaking, they should be in zone 2.
And because the extension connects up at Kennington,
that has to become a Zone 1 and 2 station,
because otherwise a journey from Battersea to central London
would start in Zone 1, and then go through Zone 2,
and then back into Zone 1, which you can't have.
So changing Kennington's fare zone
to be a boundary Zone 1/2 station fixes that.
What this actually means fare-wise
is that for pay as you go passengers
fares become cheaper, especially in the peak.
Here's me making a trip last week
from Kennington to Leicester Square before 9:30.
So that's a zone 2 to Zone 1 trip
on a fresh Oyster card with £10.
I made the journey,
and at the other end was correctly charged £3.
But from now, as Kennington is a Zone 1/2 station,
it treats it as a journey all in Zone 1.
So that in the peak you save 60p,
as the trip is now £2.40,
and in the off-peak, you save 10p,
as the price drops down from £2.50 to £2.40.
So Kennington is now a zone 1/2 station.
They've already updated the sign
And while the fares part is straightforward
although I'm gonna check it in a second
the interesting twist in the tale is that I now believe
that it is actually impossible
impossible to geographically show
the fare zones correctly on a map, on a geographic map.
So whilst I take the trip to Leicester Square
to check the price of a fare, let's talk about that.
Here's how the zones look
on a geographical map of the network at the moment.
Note that Vauxhall is also a boundary zone 1/2 station,
as is now Kennington.
The fun comes when you add the extension to the map,
and Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms
have to be in Zone 1.
So you might think that it would look like this.
But ... no, because the extension is then still going to go
through this grey, Zone 2 area, which is wrong.
So this part has to be in zone 1 as well.
But you've also got to keep Vauxhall as a zone 1/2 station.
And the only way of drawing it is ... well ... this.
Poor old Vauxhall, it'd be so much easier
if they changed it to be a pure zone 1 station.
But then that would put the prices up for certain journeys,
so they can't do that.
Fortunately though, I'm being deliberately obtuse here
by showing you a geographical map,
because it is actually possible
if you're talking about the design of just a tube map.
And here's how you do it.
The only way that I think it can be done
is to move Vauxhall to be geographically incorrect,
and place it below the Northern line extension.
This makes a slight mockery of the fact
that it's also got a river pier symbol.
So you'd have to put in a dotted line
to show that this was still a thing,
because if you don't do it this way,
then the tube map would have to look something like ...
oh my! ... this, and I think we can all agree,
that's just very silly.
So I'm at Leicester Square.
Just tapped out with my Oyster card.
That journey that cost me £3 last week,
Kennington to here, has only cost me £2.40 this morning.
that bit is all fine, simple, easy and correct.
The twist is with the map.
And to explain the next part, I need to go back to Battersea
and to a station called Queenstown Road.
That's because we've just discussed the tube map here so
but there is a second map to consider.
And that's the London rail and tube services map
which shows national rail as well.
The problem is that the Northern line extension
crosses the South Western railway line
between Vauxhall and Queenstown Road.
One is all in Zone 1, and the other is all in Zone 2.
And so my geographic map from earlier doesn't work
because this line here, shouldn't pass through Zone 1.
It needs to be in Zone 2.
And whilst you can get away with this
on the tube map design,
there is no way to do it on the rail services map.
As far as I can see, it just can't be done.
So good luck, map designers, with that one.
And so I'm back in Zone 2,
just around the corner from where I started this morning,
at Battersea Power Station station,
but this is Queenstown Road,
Queen's Road, as it was originally called.
Remember, this is Zone 2.
The Northern line extension, when it opens
will all be in Zone 1.
So how that's gonna look on the new tube map,
and more importantly,
the new London Rail and Tube services map,
goodness knows how.
I look forward to seeing that later on in the year ...