The modern day exorcist has arrived! It could be anyone, even you or me, but in this case its TfL. The long standing controversy of those ghostly marks that are a feature of the Elizabeth line has finally seen a solution implemented. Its a simple case of cover the damn things! Evidently its easier to cover up such nobilities rather than clean them. Patch and make-do is certainly becoming the name of the game on the Elizabeth line – especially in terms of those ghostly shadows. In a sense one could say these ghosts have essentially been exorcised! This has however come six years too late as we shall see in a moment – and that because its not just the Elizabeth line seats, but every nook and cranny on the new railway that has been pervaded with mysterious black marks everywhere, as if some sort of ghostly apparition is spreading itself right across the line’s central core stations.
More than a year ago, a trial took place at Liverpool Street with different styles of vinyl for TfL to ascertain the possibilities of resolving these unsightly blast shadows/ghost marks (or whatever they’re called). See BBC News for example. Its just this past week the results of that trial have been revealed. And its no doubt the most attractive of the three designs that were used back in January 2024.
It can be said the week’s news beginning 17th March 2025 (following initial reports in some blogs) finally revealed to the world TfL’s plans for modern day exorcism. If one can’t get rid of those ghosts, cover them up instead! It aint no Ghostbusters thing but rather a simple down to earth answer that involves no technology of any sort.
Ghosts of London
— RR (@raheelrana) March 15, 2025
🚇👻 Ghost marks spooking the underground stations of London?
TfL said “Boo-bye!” and slapped on moquette-inspired vinyl art at Liverpool Street and Whitechapel. The Elizabeth line’s platforms just got a colorful, grime-free glow-up! 🎨💜 Check the full story… pic.twitter.com/Co5ubNXwtd
To some it might look like a fresh scary story only William Peter Blatty could have penned – if he could be brought back from the dead somehow. Anyway its a story – sorry solution – that’s fraught with errors. No-one else is going to tell you that.
MOQUETTE ALERT: End of the ghost marks. New seat protectors at 4 Central London stations. The colours reflect the interchanges at the station. Walls are made of glass fibre reinforced concrete – good for sound proofing & light but does pick up dirt and this is TfL’s solution. pic.twitter.com/94Srr7eas8
— Tom Edwards (@BBCTomEdwards) March 14, 2025
Liverpool Street received its vinyls Friday 14th March followed by Bond Street on the Saturday overnight. Tottenham Court Road got its covers Sunday overnight and Farringdon followed on the Monday night (eg during the early hours of 18th March 2024).
In deference, Whitechapel received a different treatment compared to the other stations – this had been implemented some months ago and it entailed large grey vinyls being placed behind the seats. That was necessary because this station has a series of artworks positioned behind every seat within the station’s platform areas and to have the same exact idiom as the other stations would have no doubt distracted from those artworks.
Some news reports were saying all four had been given these new covers straightaway whilst My London claimed it was Bond Street Farringdon and Liverpool Street that had received these (when in fact it should have been Bond Street and Liverpool Street only as Farringdon didn’t get its for another two days). There were all sorts of other errors to but let’s not get ahead of ourselves eh? These are reputable sources and they work hard so they must by decree be able to earn a living/income. Unlike London Rail which sticks resolutely to facts and works damn, damn, hard yet not a single penny is earned. Oh how it must be to pen articles that are somewhat factual – and one gets a nice income too!
Talking of facts, well here’s a big one that has been discussed before but the myth (if ever there was one) is still being erroneously construed. In the Greenwich Wire it had been claimed ‘within 18 months of the railway’s opening, ‘shadows’ of past passengers appeared behind benches on platforms…’ There are two thing to this assertion and that its true and not true. It of course depends on which stations one alludes to, but there’s no doubt these shadows had first made a showing as far back as 2019! London Rail makes no apologies for having to revisit a subject that had received considerable attention two years previously on when these ghost shadows had first showed up on the Elizabeth line.
The Greenwich Wire 14th March 2025 on the ghostly marks having appeared within 18 months of the Lizzy line’s opening. Greenwich Wire.
The truth is, these ghost marks were evident on the Elizabeth line (sorry Crossrail) long before it opened! It has often been assumed it was a phenomenon that ensued once the new railway had opened. But it was a phenomenon evident long before then as demonstrated in a previous London Rail post. The reason these ghost shadows appeared nigh on six years ago is because construction workers whose protective clothes were covered in grime no doubt had regularly using the seats as a form of repose.
In this pic from Crossrail’s now vanished timeline, blast shadows can indeed be seen above the seats at Farringdon during 2019! Its evident from other photos the seat covers were removed at various points in time. This image is from a Crossrail tweet dated 10th June 2019.
Pictures of the blast shadows can be seen in this video from June 2022. The Lizzy line had barely opened, not even eighteen days the time this video was filmed – yet the above screencap from that shows the ghost shadows were by this time strongly evident. Youtube.
Closely examine one of the pictures seen in this Twitter/X post – and indeed the day the Lizzy line opened this being 24th May 2022 those very distinct back seat shadows could already be seen! They probably appeared eighteen seconds after the line had opened!
Indeed in a sense some of the worst examples on the Elizabeth line are likely because workers covered in grime sat upon those seats and relaxed their backs against the walls. By the time it came to previews of the Elizabeth line prior to its opening in 2022 a number of these ghost shadows were evident and the huge influx of passengers using the Elizabeth line from May 2022 simply made the ghost shadows’ presence much stronger. In essence the crux of the matter is a number of these had already made an appearance five years before opening and when the line was indeed opened, it didn’t take long for these ‘blast shadows’ to really make the grade.
Perhaps in fairness, and to maintain the highly venerated integrity of the Elizabeth line, one ought to pretend these shadows appeared only after the Elizabeth line had opened. Those shadows that appeared prior to 2022 will no doubt have been a figment of one’s imagination! Let it be warned there might possibly be recourses that could well be undertaken to correct one’s belief.
Anyone who claims these ghost shadows had existed before the Lizzy line opened shall face the wrath of a different sort of TfL – Torture for Liars – ‘I, I, I… never saw… any seats…. with erm… ghostly marks… and never in 2019, 2020 or whatever… them seats were definitely nice and clean erm… every single one of them… wh… wh… when the Lizzy line opened! I’m telling you the truth.. and nuffin but the truth!’ (Image from Clockwork Orange/Miniguide).
Anyhow, having warned everyone of the potential dangers of adhering to any sort of notion these ghostly shadows had existed prior to the Elizabeth line’s opening, we certainly need to concede the seat shadows had materialised after May 2022 – and definitely not before!
Now that the four core Elizabeth line stations have received a measure of exorcism, here’s the full range of station wall covers in order of station from west to east for easy comparison. Its easy to see how this form of proto-exorcism has been undertaken and the said ghost shadows banished forthwith. Each station range represents the colours of the TfL lines served at each station. The beige and white colours are no doubt generic:
Bond Street. (Central, Elizabeth and Jubilee lines).
Tottenham Court Road. (Central, Elizabeth and Northern lines).
Farringdon. (Circle, Elizabeth and Metropolitan lines).
Liverpool Street. (Central, Circle, Elizabeth, Metropolitan and Overground lines).
Seems the gremlins have already been at work! Attempts by what could have been unseen entities from the netherworld to render the seats unusable can be seen at Tottenham Court Road! This picture was taken but a mere day after the new vinyls had been placed. The ghosts are saying ‘We shall not take this exorcism lightly!’ Could it spread? Who knows! Will we soon get rivers of green, sorry, purple slime running through the Elizabeth line stations? Oooh! Venkman, Stantz and Spengler will need to be called up. Let’s hope they can manage to keep the Elizabeth line in one piece – not forgetting London has already seen Stay Puft Man cause destruction at its major railway stations – how on earth did Stay Puft even find his way here from the Big Apple?
The feature image is one I created specially for this article – its based on the posters used for the famous film The Exorcist. Thus it shows the exorcist (Max von Sydow) about to enter the Elizabeth line station at Bond Street (Hanover Square).