It's expensive, the shop at the London Transport Museum, isn't it?
But now there's another way to source a tube mug, tube t-shirt or tube poster thanks to FoI.
TfL must hate Freedom of Information requests, as various awkward members of the public demand the revelation of key data they'd otherwise never disclose. Occasionally they refuse to comply, where the law permits, but usually they have no choice but to reply politely and reveal all.
I would be grateful for copies of the latest Car Line Diagrams (CLD) for all London Underground Lines, if possible in pdf format.
Yours faithfully,
...and this week TfL responded.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold the information you require.
Attached are the 2012 Car Line Diagrams for the London Underground network. Also included are the updated overlay stickers, which inform passengers of changes to a station’s status, for example ‘Covent Garden station will be exit only from late February until early November 2015’.
They've kindly provided a zip file, and it contains all the current line diagrams that appear in tube carriages, plus all the stickers that TfL have used in the last three years, and they're all freely accessible.
If you've ever wanted a Waterloo and City line map poster for your bedroom wall, now is the time.
Or if you're feeling ambitious you could print out the whole of the Piccadilly line, or the entire Metropolitan, or the full extent of the Central. You might want to check your printer's got enough ink in it first, or use the colour photocopier at work while nobody's looking, and you might need to divide it up into several sheets, but imagine how fabulous a line diagram would look across your desk, kitchen or hallway.
The overlay stickers are possibly even more fun.
Who wouldn't like to swan around town in a Tottenham Court Road Crossrail Engineering Works Station Closure t-shirt?
Or to drink their morning cuppa from a Victoria Line Stations Now On The Overground mug?
Of course you'd need to find a suitable way of transferring the pdf image onto the necessary cotton or ceramic, preferably not relying on scissors and sticky tape as this tends to run in the first wash. I'm sure you're resourceful enough to think of an appropriate way to use this newly-released treasure trove of diagrams to enhance the material environment in which you live.
But be careful!
Any copyright in the material provided with this response is owned by TfL or one of its subsidiary companies unless otherwise stated. The disclosure of information does not give the person or organisation who receives it an automatic right to re-use it in a way that would otherwise infringe copyright (for example, by making copies, publishing it, or issuing copies to the public). Brief extracts of the material may be reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting. In respect of use for criticism, review and news reporting, any reproduction must be accompanied by an acknowledgement that TfL or one of its subsidiary companies is the copyright owner.
So don't even think of flogging off a supply of Bakerloo line teapots, or a run of Hendon Central Step-free Access badges, or a collection of Covent Garden Will Be Exit Only placemats, because that's not on. And think twice before you take the Hainault Loop down to a t-shirt printer and demand a dozen copies, because they'll tell you where to go.
But a Jubilee line diagram printed out above your desk, that'd look pretty cool, yes?
