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Transport for London (TfL) was paid £500,000 for temporarily changing the names of two tube stations, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.
London’s transport body changed the names of two of its stations to promote brand campaigns. Most recently, it changed Old Street Station into ‘Fold Street Station’ as part of a collaboration with Samsung during the launch of a series of flip and fold phones.
This came months after TfL temporarily renamed Bond Street as ‘Burberry Street’ during London Fashion Week in September 2023.
TfL received £300,000 for ‘Fold Street,’ while ‘Burberry Street’ raised £200,000, an answer to an FOI request published on 20 August found.
The transport company has said that collaborations such as these help to engage with the many passengers that travel on the tube network, while other signage that identifies the actual station name does not change during these campaigns.
"Partnerships like this help us and brands positively engage with the hundreds of thousands of people who pass through our stations in a fun and playful way, while still ensuring they can use our network safely,” a TfL spokesperson told The Independent.
"Signage within trains, including the in-car digital displays which show what the next station is, automated train announcements, and route maps within the trains, were not changed as part of the temporary take-over."
They added that TfL also spoke to Govia Thameslink so staff could assist customers who were changing between their services and the Underground stations. They also advised Moorfields Eye Hospital, which is located outside Old Street station, of the sign change in July.
However, the campaigns received some backlash from tourists and locals, who said that the sign changes resulted in some passengers missing their stops or not knowing where to go.
Another FOI request revealed that changing Bond Street to ‘Burberry Street’ caused a total of 57 complaints to TfL’s customer contact centre while the temporary roundels were in place.
Transport for All, an organisation campaigning for transport justice for disabled people in the UK, raised their concerns with TfL over the sign change and requested a meeting with the transport body following both the ‘Burberry Steet’ and ‘Fold Street’ campaigns, TfL said in the FOI answer.
They added that they also met with passenger watchdog London TravelWatch.
TfL stated that they provided Transport for All with information on how they assessed the impact of the sign changes from an equality and inclusion perspective and added that they would continue to discuss with them to build on previous lessons learned for future events.
“We all need to get around safely and easily. Making our transport system into a haphazard wild-west PR playground risks harming disabled passengers,” Emma Vogelmann, head of policy, campaigns and public affairs at Transport for All, told The Independent.
“TfL should be fully funded to provide Londoners – including disabled Londoners - with the services we all need to enjoy our capital city safely”
Transport for All also told the BBC that “thoughtless PR stunts being used to plug holes in TfL funding cannot be at the expense of accessibility and safety for disabled passengers”.
TfL said “any revenue received through these collaborations is reinvested into the transport network”.
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