He says the display was designed to look like a map of the local Washington Metro train system instead of a tree.
VOA: special.2009.12.01
At first these display table numbers, but once the train departs they show a constantly updating route map, interrupted by carefully timed bursts of music and video that match an attraction appearing alongside the train.
Mr Beck was notably ahead of the game in producing a version of his London map showing all underground and surface level train services as early as 1938.