London Banter - View Single Post

Bob · September 2nd 19, 05:48 PM posted to uk.transport.london

Peter Able wrote:
On 01/09/2019 15:33, wrote:
On Sun, 1 Sep 2019 15:09:35 +0100
Peter Able wrote:
On 01/09/2019 14:25, Graeme Wall wrote:
On 01/09/2019 14:05, Peter Able wrote:
On 01/09/2019 12:41, MissRiaElaine wrote:
On 31/08/2019 23:36, Bryan Morris wrote:
In message , MissRiaElaine
writes

So why do all the roundel signs say Underground..? That's what it's
been known as my whole life and I was born in London even though I
don't live there any more.

Next time you're in London get a map, it's called the TUBE map.

It is now, because some idiot decided to change the name. All the old
maps I saved from my childhood say Underground.

Save toner and breath - and call it LT.Ã‚Â* That was how it was 50 years
ago when I worked for, LT.

Wasn't it LRT for about 15 minutes in the 80s?

It was indeed. LRT was all part of Mrs. Thatcher's beating up the GLC,
all LT operations moving from the GLC to the Secretary of State for
Transport. Two years later, she extended the battle - sacking the GLC
entirely.

I never understood the change from L(R)T to TfL? What exactly did all the
office shuffling and rebranding achieve other than keeping some civil servants
in work? Transport For London is an unwieldy ugly name that sounds more like a
lobbying group than a large public transport organisation.

Image fetishism - commonplace since the 1980s. The good idea of
co-ordinated transport in London started off with the clumsy LPTB. The
nationwide expansion lead to the improved LTE, but the minimal LT, I
think, was the true "fit for function" name. Then "Brand advisers"
started "improving" things.

Ironic in this context. One of the pioneers of the idea of imposing unified
branding and images to provide a managed an manicured public facing
identity for an organisation was Frank Pick with the London Underground
branding: the roundel, the Johnston typeface, the Beck map, the colours for
lines, the universal Way Out signs and all that. If any one organisation
can claim credit for inventing the concept of corporate branding, it is
London Underground.

Robin