Tube fan’s Surrey Underground map is so convincing people think it’s actually real

A Tube enthusiast has created a map showing what Surrey would look like if it was on the Underground.

While parts of Surrey are located within the M25, it is often not considered part of London and this means it is not on the Tube network.

Now Lara Vaughan, a Tube superfan, has changed that – or at least given the people of Surrey a taste of what the county would look like on an Underground map.

The 23-year-old created an alternative Tube map featuring Surrey towns and villages on the colourful map.

When she shared the map on social media, some people mistook it for a real proposal planned by the council, attracting ‘furious’ comments.

Lara, a network technician living in Camberley, Surrey, said her fascination with London and the iconic Tube started in her teens when she started to have more weekends away in the capital with her friends and mum.

‘I saw the tube map as the symbol of getting into a London uni, and had a big map on my wall next to where I studied,’ she told Metro.

As part of her job at a sixth form college, she often creates maps – and now she has taken this to another level with the ‘Surrey County Metro’ map.

With dozens of stations and major interchanges, 12 lines and six zones inspired by the Underground network, the map captivates even those unfamiliar with Surrey.

Some lines start from existing Tube stations such as Morden, Wimbledon and Heathrow, and stretch to Guildford, Epsom, Gatwick Airport, Farmham, Ash Vale and Haslemere.

Line names include Turing, Stag, Doyle, Magna Carta, mosque and Dynamite – all named based on something important to Surrey’s history.

The difference between using fictional locations and real places was that ‘people are a lot more attached to individual locations.’

While feedback was mostly positive, some people complained when one village or hamlet was not included while others were, which was due to the zoom level she used on Google Maps.

She said: ‘I did receive the odd comment from people thinking that their council tax was genuinely being spent on building this, or that it was a real Surrey County Council proposal – those comments gave me a good laugh as they were so furious about something that was just a dream hypothetical! I took it as a sign that my map looked legitimate.’

Mostly the feedback has been ‘excellent,’ with people discussing online how much shorter their commutes would get thanks to her map and reminiscing about their favourite local pubs and places.

‘It felt a bit like a town hall with people in the local community just talking to each other.

‘I also enjoyed the research into Surrey’s history – something you don’t get when making maps for fictional places – as I wanted to name each line after something important to Surrey history.

‘It was fun watching people try and work out what each line name meant.’

Her first memory of the Tube map was when two tourists asked her for directions while Lara was ‘equally as lost trying to get to the university I’d eventually end up at.’

‘I think I sent them on the right way, but maybe they’re still lost!’

She said she is ‘a bit of a fanatic’ nowadays, with her Tube love affair deepening during the coronavirus pandemic when she watched Geoff Marshall YouTube videos and collected paper Underground maps.

Usually, her maps featured the imaginary worlds of video games and films -until her parents suggested she should use a real location.

However, it has never been ‘about the trains’ for Lara whose favourite stations are Embankment, Strand, Baker Street and Stratford.

Instead, she admires the design principles and the organisation of the TfL network and ‘how all the lines intertwine and are coordinated, and the history.’

She said: ‘The buildings and unique features each have is another thing I absolutely love – and I always snap a picture of any maze art I come across.

‘In terms of more painful memories, I once tried to beat the lift in Covent Garden by sprinting up the stairs and was immediately humbled and nearly passed out.’

The 161-year-old Tube and its iconic map continues to attract admirers. Last year, map enthusiast Max Roberts created a circular Tube map, saying the official map is cluttered and ‘really horrible.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.