please empty your brain below
I'd like to think they A/B tested this, but for me the Overground lines ought to be grouped together at the bottom.

Also what on earth has happened to the Lizzie Line to be off in the central section two days in a row? Botched software upgrade?

martin | 27.11.24 - 7:14 a.m. | #

Now I'd like to see them in order of colour!

And whilst nothing can be done anymore, I'd have given the Windrush the East London orange that the Lioness has; the Lioness having the colours of an England red away kit would have been a nice touch. The Suffragette green is a nice look!

And I agree that the Overground lines should be clumped together - but even then, seeing Crossrail, DLR, and Trams amongst the Tubes also looks odd to me.

All Over 2a | Homepage | 27.11.24 - 7:23 a.m. | #

What is their policy on the use of the word “line”?

Seems to be Elizabeth: always; Overground: sometimes; Underground: rarely.

Dan | 27.11.24 - 7:27 a.m. | #

I also wonder if they even mocked up the rainbow boards before finalising the name and colour combinations.

The lack of visual distinctiveness between the consecutive labels Jubilee/Liberty, Suffragette/Trams, and Weaver/Windrush leads me to think they didn’t.

That said, their guidance for third-party data providers strongly discourages showing the Overground lines in solid colour blocks like this at all, so they’re breaching their own best practices guidance.

Andrew M | Homepage | 27.11.24 - 7:35 a.m. | #

There's been a strange and disappointing absence of communication about the closure of the Elizabeth Line core. I noticed a few trains ran late last night out to Abbey Wood (though no through trains to Stratford and Shenfield). Would have been nice to get an email and to see something on the website other than the standard line status info. I wonder what's going on.

JP | 27.11.24 - 7:35 a.m. | #

Dan: they consider “Elizabeth line” to be a mode name, and thus inseparable, whereas Overground and Underground (Wombling free) line names are subbrands and a bit more mutable.

But yes, Elizabeth line always, Overground lines sometimes (usually no ‘line’ if they’re shown as part of a combined list, ‘line’ if the Overground is separate from the Underground in a list), and Underground rarely.

Andrew M | Homepage | 27.11.24 - 7:38 a.m. | #

Not quite matching reality this morning!

Southern Heights (Light Railway) | 27.11.24 - 7:49 a.m. | #

Andrew M, "the lack of visual distinctiveness between the consecutive labels Jubilee/Liberty, Suffragette/Trams and Weaver/Windrush" is irrelevant because lines only appear in this order when they're offering a Good service.

Brian | 27.11.24 - 7:52 a.m. | #

...or when they’re both offering bad service, which is the situation where it matters more.

Andrew M | Homepage | 27.11.24 - 7:59 a.m. | #

I find it ridiculous that a minor branch line that 99% of people in London will never use is given the same prominence on TfL's website as, for example, the Victoria line.

Alan | 27.11.24 - 8:17 a.m. | #

You know, I don't hate it.
The new colours work pretty well with each other, despite the fact that the Met and Weaver, and Central and Windrush each use the same colours.

But TfL needs to figure out their usage of "line".

TW | 27.11.24 - 8:21 a.m. | #

Here are 60 comments on Reddit muttering about the updated TfL status page.

I've just discovered now.tfl.gov.uk, a very simple webpage laid out like a rainbow board in a TfL station.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 27.11.24 - 8:27 a.m. | #

It will take a long time until I get used to these new fangled names.

The Elizabeth line has suffered a major fault in the signalling system, apparently the worst in TFL's history. It seems they don't know what the problem is which is why they aren't telling us much. There are test trains running now which maybe is a good sign but it doesn't look good.

davews | 27.11.24 - 8:34 a.m. | #

I think there might be some kind of cludge in the back end to make this work, as when there was disruption on the Overground lines last night beneath each entry the text was there for all of the Overground lines rather than just the relevant text.

dg writes: indeed - see here

Paul | 27.11.24 - 8:43 a.m. | #

That now.tfl.gov.uk is brilliant. Just as it should be. But why H'smith & City instead of Hammersmith & City? There is plenty of space to write it out in full.

If the answer is so it can fit on narrow screens then I believe the software is able to access the actual screen width and adjust accordingly.

Pedantic of Purley | 27.11.24 - 9:18 a.m. | #

I’m at a Weaver line station and they’ve updated the visual displays. It’s a bigger change than I was expecting. The style of the departure board screen has completely changed and is now similar to the now.tfl link that dg posted above.

Dan | 27.11.24 - 9:26 a.m. | #

There seems to be an omission. Where's "Dangleway - Suspended"?

Roger P | 27.11.24 - 9:29 a.m. | #

JP, I presume those trains were test trains and not in passenger service.

Pedantic of Purley | 27.11.24 - 9:30 a.m. | #

There’s still some issues with some train departures on Google Maps. It shows Homerton as being served by the Overground and Mildmay, for example, but departures are only shown for the former.

It’s too late now but I would have used one of the other colours for the Windrush line to make it stand out more on the maps against Thameslink. It reminds me of the old sea of orange but in red in south London.

Auntie Susan | 27.11.24 - 9:30 a.m. | #

It all looks very pretty but there is already an indication of how the 'named lines' system may become too unwieldy in the future. If any more lines are added (DLR too perhaps?) the list will become longer and won't fit easily on to screens etc, slowing down reading time because of the scrolling.

Steve | Homepage | 27.11.24 - 9:47 a.m. | #

Don't like.

maybe an orange bar to their side to show they are overground.. or a white stripe through them. otherwise it's too close to other line colours.

Alistair twin | 27.11.24 - 9:51 a.m. | #

The old 'fullscreen' rainbow board website still exists - now including the new Overground lines, but not with their colours.

martin | 27.11.24 - 9:51 a.m. | #

The ‘Windrush’ Line should have been orange, the colour of the former East London Line. The shade now used (for the ‘Lioness’ Line) seems to be that of the ELL from 1990, and still appears on the platform name friezes on the core ELL route.

Kim | 27.11.24 - 10:11 a.m. | #

The ’now’ board link is the same feed as the station rainbow boards as far as I can see.

Rob Healy | 27.11.24 - 10:12 a.m. | #

I can see why they have done it this way because in years to come, Overground will fall from usage as Crossrail has, but for now it appears confusing to this infrequent Overground user who doesn't know where each line goes!

Cornish Cockney | 27.11.24 - 10:47 a.m. | #

I can see that Metropolitan and Weaver are signified by subtly different colours, but not sure about Central and Windrush.

cau1khead | 27.11.24 - 11:33 a.m. | #

City Mapper gets it right.

Ackshley | 27.11.24 - 11:39 a.m. | #

Haven't seen a new-style station "rainbow" board for real yet. If it reflects that "now" web page then the change of emphasis to prioritise disruption rather than a bold "Good service on all other lines" with actual problems shown much smaller and hard to see at a distance is a big improvement.

Andrew S | 27.11.24 - 11:42 a.m. | #

Now the Overground lines have been split out into their own names I see no reason for the Elizabeth line not to be grouped with the other Overground lines, both on this screen and the 'Tube map'

Dave | 27.11.24 - 11:43 a.m. | #

All very well but on the TfL site, the maps showing disrupted lines have disappeared - let's hope it's temporary while something is fixed.

The badges for Overground, DLR etc. should have a vertical white 'tramline' on one side of the colour blcok.

NickW | 27.11.24 - 2:03 p.m. | #

oh dear, this is wrong.

Show "Underground" and then the 11 lines, then "Overground" and the 6 lines with their new names and colours. Liz Line / Trams etc, at the bottom

Group the modes together. It's the most obvious thing to do in my opinion.

emma | 27.11.24 - 5:40 p.m. | #

Outside the nerdsphere, I'm not sure how many normies are bothered about the difference between Overground and Underground - it's all Oyster. Passengers are only bothered about their journey - if your journey doesn't involve line 'X' then it doesn't matter what it's status is.

The Elizabeth Line has the same problem as the Overground had, the generalized statements are unhelpful, probably in order of priority it should be core (Paddington - Liverpool Street), Heathrow branch, Romford branch, Woolwich branch, Reading branch.

Still Anon | 27.11.24 - 10:26 p.m. | #

I wouldn't have done it like that.

Petras409 | 27.11.24 - 10:52 p.m. | #

Cau1khead - At least on that display, the Central & Weaver lines are exactly the same shade of red (#DC241F in each case), and though they do look a little different when adjacent to the ones they're next to, the same goes for the two purple lines (both are #9A0156).

David | 27.11.24 - 11:46 p.m. | #

I actually quite like this, although how long until the DLR is broken into separate sections and the list gets really unwieldy.

dncn | 28.11.24 - 12:11 a.m. | #

I first discovered the now.tfl.gov.uk link after they set up a redirect to it.

I still remember the days of m.countdown.tfl.gov.uk. It's still in my bookmarks with my old relevant stops!

AndrewP | 28.11.24 - 1:49 a.m. | #

I just received this weekend's travel advice email from TfL and I must say it looks much clearer having the individual line names and advice under the Overground sub-heading.

Ackshley | 28.11.24 - 11:06 a.m. | #











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