The introduction of six Overground line names continues to have unfortunate repercussions.
One of these is a new tube map, which started appearing the racks yesterday.
It's unfortunate because the last tube map was only released three weeks ago. Alas it included a typo so the decision was taken to withdraw the entire batch pending a reprint, and here is that reprint three weeks later.
I know it looks like the maps are three months apart but that's because the last map was delayed. Overground Renaming Week had long been pencilled in for the end of September, so when the initial tube map was sent to the printers it made sense to write 'September 2024' on the front. Then the cyberattack happened and, after a lot of tough remediation, TfL shifted Overground Renaming Week to the end of November instead. This meant a tube map with September on the front would be released in November, which wasn't ideal but far better than reprinting the whole batch for the sake of one word. Ahem.
Although the September tube map must have been sitting around for at least two months before release, nobody spotted the unfortunate typo waiting in the wings. It was even somewhere really obvious, not like the pesky 'Morden tram zone' error that caused a previous tube map print run to be pulped in 2016. This time it was in the key, specifically in the list of six renamed Overground lines, where inexplicably five of the lines had 'line' on the end but Mildmay didn't. Members of the public spotted this error pretty quickly and TfL swiftly gave the order to remove all maps from public display, deciding that this time it was worth reprinting the whole batch for the sake of one word.
They've got it right this time.
Other than the new date and the corrected key there are only two other changes, which arguably make the reprint worthwhile.
Two stations on the Northern line have been closed for a long time, Colindale since June 2024 and Kentish Town since June 2023. Both were shown as closed on the September 2024 tube map, which made sense when this was due to be published in September but less sense when it finally appeared at the end of November. Both stations are due to reopen in the next few days, Colindale on 20th December and Kentish Town on 23rd December, so both are shown as open on the December map. The new pocket tube map is thus more up-to-date than the poster maps at stations, and that's a win.
Colindale and Kentish Town being open has also removed two daggers from the tube map, which can only help with clarity. There are now only nine daggers on the map, well below the long term average, so binning the previous map has had another beneficial effect.
Someone will already have submitted an FoI request to ask TfL how much the reprint cost, so don't be a snarky grump and submit another. But just imagine how much money could have been saved had the original September tube map been proofread properly, and keep your fingers crossed that nothing untoward turns up on the December tube map now the public's got their hands on it.
