New Tube Map loses river

There's been quite a major change on the new London Underground map. Blech took a photo and said he thinks "it's the most radical change it's had in at least one decade, possibly even two. Has someone been reading Maxwell Roberts?"


Blech said:

"Since March, the map has lost:

* the river (no map since 1924 has omitted it, I believe)
* the zone structure
* the East London line buses (it's now a line, "under construction")
* walk distances
* info boxes in the map body
* limited-time junctions (eg Kennington, Woodford)

It's also gained more stations marked as interchanges (eg Paddington, West Hampstead) while Imperial Wharf is also there ("opening late 2009").
If it wasn't for the wheelchairs, this would be the most minimal pocket map ever."

There's already a lot of discussion about this on Blech's Flickr thread. version-3-point-1 said it's "an attempt to make it less cluttered, the Gods from on high told us! LUL opened up a forum for us staff to offer feedback and as far as I've heard, quite a few of my colleagues have made nothing but complaints!"

What do you think? Is it more helpful now it's less cluttered? What about the loss of the river? And the loss of the zones, is this a help or hindrance?