I'm a bit late with this as I believe the changes were introduced by TfL
last October, but I don't think anyone else has mentioned it on utl, so
for anyone interested in LU/TfL typography . . .

TfL have made at least two changes to the New Johnston typeface that is
their corporate standard.

The figure "1" has lost the sloping stroke at the top. (Some might call
it a serif, but it's really part of the basic shape of a printed "1" in
nearly all sanserif typefaces.) They have reverted to a single vertical
stroke, with a sloping top edge to it, very similar to the original
Johnston shape.

The figure "4" has also changed, with the top and left hand points of
the triangle becoming sharp points instead of being cut off in the
previous design. Again this takes the "4" back towards the original
Johnston design which also had sharp points, though the horizontal bar
doesn't project as far to the right in New New Johnston as it did in old
Johnston.

I am amazed that these changes have been made to an established typeface
which has so much exposure to the general public. Presumably the new
designs will only appear on new signs and publications, so for the
forseeable future the superseded designs will still be on show all over
the network. I'm also surprised that the design standards documents on
the TfL website don't make any reference to the changes.

Can anyone throw any light on why these changes were made?

Samples of the revised fonts are in the various design standards
documents on the TfL site, for example, the Line Diagram Standard at
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate/...rd-issue03.pdf
This shows the new New Johnston Medium font on page 4. The old "1" and
"4" can still be seen on page 18, where the example of the Heathrow
Piccadilly Line layout has not been revised.

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)