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The Main Drag
Yesterday I told you about the spelling mistake on the roundel mat at Acton Main Line station. It said acton mail line. What's more they'd made this spelling error previously in spring 2021 and now they'd made it again in autumn 2023. It wasn't clever. We may have giggled.
But it turns out they had already noticed and they had already replaced it and it already says acton main line. I went back and checked the mat yesterday. It looks quite new.
Sorry, this is what happens when you see something odd but don't write about it immediately. In this case I waited ten days, and of course by then TfL had got their act together and expunged this bristly error because due process usually catches these things. I should have gone back and checked the day before I published but, apologies, I presumed it was still there. It remains the case that an egregious spelling mistake somehow made it underfoot, twice, in an actual Crossrail station. But it is not there now.
Giving Up The Ghost
One thing they perhaps didn't consider when building Crossrail was how dirty the station walls might get. Specifically the walls behind the bench seating which have gone all blurry where people's jackets and bags have repeatedly rubbed up against the surface. Some have likened the end result to a row of ghosts.
Cleaning hasn't solved the situation, or at least it hasn't returned the seatbacks to an unblotched state, and the contrast will only get more obvious as the years go by. So the latest ploy is to add art on the walls behind the seats in vinyl form, partly as a distraction but mainly because it'll be easier to clean. Here's an example from Liverpool Street.
There are at least four different designs at Liverpool Street, each embracing the broader Elizabeth line palette. They only appear behind the benches at the ends of the platforms so the benches inbetween remain as ghostly as before. This has the look of a trial which might be rolled out further if deemed successful. Above is one of the duller examples, and below is a design which looks like four people. Both of these appear on the eastbound platform. I thought the designs on the westbound platform were better but their seats were fully occupied by glum people with large suitcases so you're not getting photos of those.
It's worth saying they don't have this problem at Whitechapel because that already has art behind the benches, and proper art at that. It's by Chantal Joffe, it was factored in from the beginning and nobody'd guess it doubles up as a way to keep the walls clean. Expect a cheaper vinyl solution at the other central stations if this is rolled out further.
160 Happy Returns
Back in January TfL promised to celebrate the tube's 160th birthday with "a programme of activities throughout 2023". They haven't really delivered.
Here's my attempt at a full list of activities...
• Heart-shaped roundels at 11 stations [total cost £8,597.50]
• A self-guided treasure hunt across the original Metropolitan Railway stations (it lasted four hours and prizes included 2000 branded Tote bags, 2000 branded pens, 500 branded water bottles and 500 branded Moleskine notebooks) [total cost £16,684.37]
• Heritage tube rides at the end of the Piccadilly line on a weekend in June [tickets £35]
• Four podcasts [participants unpaid]
The podcasts are new and were released yesterday. They come under the umbrella title Mind The Gap and are hosted by Tim Dunn who chats excitedly to important people, TfL staff and a few friends about how generally marvellous the tube is. The first three are available for free "wherever you normally get your podcasts", and if that phrase leaves you none the wiser then a default place to listen is here. They're nicely done, the guests are a diverse bunch and none of them outstay their welcome. The second episode shoehorns in this month's Central line upgrade so is a bit more Secrets Of The London Underground than the others, and the fourth episode (in which Tim and Rylan ride to Epping and beyond) isn't released until later in the month. The project has legs, and I wouldn't be surprised if it continued into the tube's 161st year and beyond.
G Pay and Display
It's been a long time since tube passengers tapped in on a yellow reader because Google snaffled them all up for use as advertising spaces in March 2020. Unfortunately the capital went into lockdown a few days later and their £2m investment stalled somewhat, but they've extended their contract since and the latest annual payment (agreed in June 2023) will earn TfL another £1,810,000.
Some stations are permitted an extra burst of advertising - namely London Bridge, Victoria, Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Liverpool Street, Kings Cross and Stratford - where G Pay is splashed all around the ticket machines in an attempt to get people not to use them. Google advertising is even used to infill spaces where ticket machines have been removed, as if delighting in their inexorable extinction. Obviously TfL's accountants would be delighted if everyone with an Oyster card just threw it away and went native because they'd save a pretty penny on processing costs. But it seems somewhat one-sided to see no mention of using contactless or Apple Pay as an alternative, just a screaming exhortation to join the Google bandwagon.
And now the pads are going festive, with emoji-plastered messages like "Seasons Greetings from G Pay", "Tap. Pay. Jingle all the Way." and the frankly baffling "Tap. Pay. Sleigh." I fear the copywriters may be saving up "O G Pay All Ye Faithful" and "The 12 G Pays of Christmas" until next year. It must be wonderful to have the corporate cash to splash on promotional froth like this, which TfL certainly haven't following another round of inadequate government funding, so expect to see more and more of this intrusive sponsorship in increasingly novel locations.
