https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68296483 TFL moaning it has no money yet can spend £6.3m on renaming some of the overground network. Not such a terible idea but a bit pricey in the current climate no? I know that Sterling is in the **** but are so so far in the **** that the the BBC website feels the need to convert this figure in to $ so we can get a better handle on the amount? It's not like the average American is really interested in whether the line betweeen Watford and Euston is called Liney McLine Face, the Lioness line or anything else. New lines are: Liberty - Romford to Upminster Lioness - Watford to Euston Mildmay - Richmond to Stratford Suffragette - Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside Weaver - Liverpool Street to Enfield Windrush - Highbury & Islington to West Croydon A couple of good names a couple of mediocre names a couple of awful ones. Wonder if we can come up with any better ones?
Romford to upminster should be called the Essex express. And play this on repeat over the intercom on the trains.
If they were going to name Watford-Euston after an animal it's a bit weird that they didn't go with Hornet.
That is weird putting it in dollars. It obviously should be in Euros. I’m not a fan of these rebranding schemes, though if there was reliable research that suggested the previous situation was difficult for travellers, then fine. However, the choices are obviously tokenistic and likely to provoke more than please. The cost sounds bad, but I have no idea how often they need to renew signage or maps, so it could just be normal spending, apart from the wedge to some vacuous consultancy laughing all the way to the bank. Not appealing, but I’m going to come down on the side of not giving a ****.
You'll never come up with a name that pleases everyone and none of them would have made the cut if I'd been asked to choose them (which for some reason I wasn't) but I'm very glad that Sadiq didn't sell the naming rights of each line to a sponsor - although I think the Orbital Fasteners line would have worked well for the Watford to Euston section
Is this what Her Majesty’s greatest gift to the Nation was? She saved us from squabbling by simply having everything named after her.
I am not a fan of these new names but you've put it in perspective that it could have been much worse. I can't imagine how the daily mail readers feel about this.
I can't imagine people could make much sense of 'Bakerloo' or 'District' back in the day. And I bet when 'Circle' was named loads of people went "Is that the best you can do?" In short, we'll know of this latest round of naming has worked in about 75-100 years time. See you all back here for the debrief.
My thoughts exactly. For a few minutes I was wondering if they've tried to please the maximum amount of people possible, (my eldest daughter is delighted at the Lioness reference particularly), and I was thinking that perhaps a nod at the 66 winners might have been the better choice, but then reality hit like a slap in the face and I came to the same conclusion as you.
It's the cost that grates on me, especially when TFL are going cap in hand to beg for more funding. If that includes signage then fair enough I suppose although I would hope that signs were replaced through natural wear and tear rather than all at some arbitrary point just because the lines are renamed. £6.3M is a lot of cash to help people get around. Could have gone towards providing a few more ticket office staff that would have done the same thing maybe?
Out of interest, what should it cost? What's the annual bill for maintaining and replacing signs across TFL's network? TFL's annual revenue is £9.1 BILLION. It spends around £745 MILLION a year on 'capital renewal' – ie planned, cyclical replacement or refurbishment of assets at the end of their useful lives to maintain a state of good repair. So, the cost of the rebrand, which will including replacing signs on six lines which span a huge distance north-south and east-west across the city, is around 8% of the entire capital renewal budget for the year. And once it's done, it won't need to be done again until those signs are worn out and need replacing. I grant you, the cost of replacing signage that is still in good nick has to be taken into account but, still, it's a drop in the ocean. People really don't have a great grasp of either the scale of numbers or the cost of things which is why Bill, 64, from Plaistow reckons it's a waste of money.
Having used the Overground periodically when living in north London, can confirm that having loads of lines that are all the same colour and have multiple intersections didn't make it easy to find your way around it! Less so on planning your journey as most people use apps these days but when you're changing to go from one to another, working out where to go was never that easy.
Rebranding doesn't come cheap. The time of the creative team that came up with the seven new names is worth 6m on its own. You want signs chucked in for nothing do you??? Cheeky ba5tard
Absolutely! There was an eight month consultation on the choice of typeface. (They kept it the same). The marketing agency Perfect Curve can’t be expected to work without tea and biscuits or ready access to a babyfoot table. And meeting room tables in the shape and design of a giant fried egg are not cheap.
Any schema connecting ‘underground’ with ‘overground’ surely needed to name the lines after the Wombles?
Dunno if I told this but I used to haver a lot of dealings with the Cheltenham based Spirax Sarco. They make and supply the gold standard in steam armature (couplings, valves, traps, control systems etc). They're as old as us (1888) and genuine world leaders in their field - a UK manufacturing success story. When I visited in 2013, I presented my contact there with a 125 shirt. He told me that they had had dealings with a "Brand Consultancy" - the first thing they suggested was a name change...
I did say "If that includes signage then fair enough I suppose although I would hope that signs were replaced through natural wear and tear rather than all at some arbitrary point just because the lines are renamed." The article tends to suggest certainly to me that this is an extra cost however.
Surely Bakerloo is obvious? Much more so than the ridiculous “Lioness”. Personally I’d have called it the Southgate line just to wind everyone up/confuse them.
I guess it became less obvious as it got extended, but agree, one of the more obvious names. I think the names are cringey, especially the Lionesses, given from a pure competition basis their accomplishment, whilst good and uplifting, is probably less impressive than the average Olympic gold medal winner. I think they should have gone for remarkable individuals from the areas covered by the line. The Doyley line would surely have been a shoo in.
