With stations such as Paddingtron located in the core route through the centre of London, here are some pictures which shows the advertising that have, erm… changed the former Crossrail line for the better!
Its quite a rarity for TfL (otherwise known as Tronsport for London) to have almost every single station on the core Elizabeth line (or should that be Elizabetron?) populated with the same advertising throughout. Sadly Whitechapel and Paddingtron don’t feature because they haven’t the necessary LED border style advertising screens required.
Lets go from Liverpool Street towards Paddingtron and see what the route has to offer. There’s a ton of Trons for a start and every deep level level concourse on the Elizabeth line has these particular advertisements featuring Tron: Ares – the new Disney movie due to be released during October 2025.
Liverpool Street
Secret admirers walking among the Tron adverts at Liverpool Street-Moorgate!
There’s no doubt the red LED border plus the deep reds for the Tron: Ares adverts themselves has lent to a quite dramatic effect within the Elizabeth line’s cavernous concourses. Essentially the deep reds plus the dark shadow areas complement the concourses because these too have quite strongly contrasting areas of both dark and bright spreads.
It can be quite certain few passengers really had the time to take in the strongly contrasting effects the adverts and the Elizabeth line concourses conveyed. There have been other adverts that have given a similar sense however the Tron ones have been one of the few with a far greater impact.
That is no doubt due to the red hues in these adverts. Red is often seen as a sort of angry colour (no surprise red often signifies danger) but in certain situations red can indeed be a colour which conveys excitement and motivation. This is what the Tron adverts are no doubt attempting to achieve. And its the reds (and blacks) within the adverts that too increase the sense of excitement or even a stronger mood within the station concourses.
Tron adverts in the bowels of the Earth all the way from Liverpool Street to Moorgate!
Not only that, the dark patches in the advertising also mimics in a sense the perforated acoustic panelling within the concourse arching plus the now somewhat ingrained (and dirty) flooring which has taken after the equally dirt ingrained Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete (GRC) panelling.
Farringdon
Farringdon east side Tron: Ares.
Basically its that when the Elizabeth line had opened the Tron adverts would have not conveyed the same impact as they do now. The tunnels/concourses were quite considerably white in appearance – and not as sombre and moody as they have now become. The Tron adverts are some of the better examples to have graced the Elizabeth line’s concourses – and it was these that highlighted the realisation of an artistic relationship between the advertising and the concourses.
Its why London Rail took to photographing these adverts – not because of being a Tron fan or whatever – but because these adverts were merely temporary. They were indeed replaced with others on the 7th October 2025 and those new ones (like many others) didn’t even have the same effect!
Farringdon (east end/Barbican) with the LED advert edging showing up quite nicely. These are switched to mimic to whatever the main colour happens to be on the advertisements.
Farringdon (western end) with people mingling amongst the Tron adverts.
The much darker concourse’s appearance at the bottom of the Farringdon east end escalators lends a greater effect when complemented with the Tron adverts.
The reason for this much darker part of the station is the uplighter sited within the totem immediately at the bottom of the escalators has not worked for the best part of a year or so! These uplighters give great effect but are evidently a blighter when it comes to a need to replace the lights within!
The ongoing nature of the uplighter not being immediately replaced at Farringdon shows why some elements of the Elizabeth line concourses (for example work within the upper sections of the tunnels such as the electrics or to repair/replace panelling, and in the case of Tottenham Court Road – to clean its signs that hang from the ceiling.
These signs are the only examples to be found on the Elizabeth line’s lower station concourses away from the escalator areas. At the Elizabeth line’s other stations (such as Barbican or Liverpool Street/Moorgate, and Bond Street) there are signs that hang from the ceiling too and that because the mid level concourses or lengthy passageways are quite dissimilar and are almost invariably smaller compared to the main ones.
Hence such work can only be done once in a blue moon because of a need to bring in tower platforms for any jobs to be undertaken – and that no doubt because ladders can’t be used – its because the shiny concourse floors could potentially cause any ladders to slip and fall.
Tottenham Court Road
Tottenham Court Road (Dean Street) main concourse is the only station to have a deep level concourse dedicated to nothing but Tron – and that because there are no uplit totems down the centre of the concourse.
The absence of the uplighters/totems in the main concourse at Tottenham Court Road Dean Street does explain why this particular section is less dramatic in terms of lighting than elsewhere. It also explains why directional signs hanging from ceiling are necessary in this particular concourse!
A similar situation can also be seen in the mid level concourse at Liverpool Street which too has no totems, however the tunnel size here is much smaller too, thus the effect is less pronounced. Not only that the smaller size invariably means at such an extremely busy station its difficult to photograph the adverts within that section!
In a sense, the Dean Street concourse is unique to the line’s other concourses. Almost all the other Elizabeth line’s large deep level concourses are centrally placed, this one is the only styled example to be placed almost alongside a station platform – this being that on the westbound line.
Compared to this main offside concourse, Tottenham Court Road too has another much shorter concourse at its eastern end. Its not built in a typical Elizabeth line style, being much narrower with quite a low, flat, ceiling. It provides an alternative route to the Northern line. Unusually this and the main, and large central concourse at Tottenham Court Road eastern entrance are the only ones to run in parallel. The somewhat non-standard Elizabeth line concourse is pictured below.
Not an Elizabetron line view! London Rail apologises for the lack of Tron: Ares advertising in this section! In all reality however, this is the passageway from the westbound platform to the Northern line at Tottenham Court Road, and it also forms an alternative route to the station’s escalators and exit.
Just five metres or so away from where the previous picture was taken is the main central concourse at Tottenham Court Road eastern end – complete with Tron advertising!
The same concourse from a view further west, showing a busker at work while passengers (sorry customers) venture past the Tron adverts.
Bond Street
Bond Street with its Elizabetron line adverts.
And now for something completely different! Or rather something completely similar! This the appearance of the Hanover Square and Dean Street concourses which look almost exactly the same. No other concourses on the Elizabeth line’s central core have this peculiarity.
The Hanover Square exit at Bond Street – not forgetting the Trons!
By way of Bond Street being the only Elizabeth line station to have almost the same exact design at both ends means it can be hard to tell the difference between the two in photographs. One way of knowing the difference is the Hanover Square end of the station has a smooth curved transition to the escalators, whereas the Davies Street end has essentially two straight sections placed at an angle to each other.
The former looks splendid while the latter appears an afterthought and does suggest the Dean Street side was somewhat a bodge job. Evidently that is basically what it was because the Dean Street side was extremely problematic. Its why the Elizabeth line’s Bond Street station opened half a year later than the rest.
One other way of knowing the difference between the two is the angle is rather more acute at Hanover Square. Even so, the Hannover Square side still looks much cleaner in terms of its appearance and its no doubt more properly built than that at Dean Street.
This is the Dean Street aspect at Bond Street. It looks exactly like the Hanover Square one! Fortunately the Tron adverts are different – otherwise these comparative views would have been far more confusing!
Epilogue
The Tron: Ares advertising on the Elizabeth line were removed overnight on 6/7th October 2025 and replaced with a new set which advertises the reMarkable Paper Pro portable paper tablet. The lighting effects from that isn’t as good as the Tron series were.
Is Tron: Ares going to be a success? Well I really don’t know as film reviews are not my forte. However some of the reviews that have been seen slate the film for poor scripting and more. Not only that it doesn’t follow from where Tron: Legacy left off. The effects, described as ‘visually stunning,’ might possibly be the film’s saving grace.
At the time of writing this new Reddit post had come up (depicted below) and it discusses Jeff Bridges, who is in the film for a very short while, being featured in a new poster that is completely different to the other Tron: Ares posters including those on the Elizabetron line. The general consensus among the Reddit comments is the film has a low possibility of attaining success.
In the Metro (9 October 2025) on page 20, there was a short review of the new Tron: Ares movie. The film was given two stars and the review basically does not give the new film much credence in furthering the Tron franchise. This is shown below along with a full transcript of the article’s contents. Anyway enough of these reviews etc as London Rail is not even a film review website!
RELEASED in 1982, the original Tron still stands as one of the most iconic sci-fi movies of all time. Viewers gasped in wonder at its visionary special effects, which saw Tron’s human hero (then a young Jeff Bridges, who pops back for the obligatory ‘legacy’ cameo in Ares) digitally reborn inside a glowy neon computer mainframe. Viewers were less wowed by the story telling, however, an inbalance that’s been faithfully maintained throughout the franchise’s history.
And so we get Tron: Ares. Limping in 15 years after disappointing reboot Tron: Legacy, it is the definition of an unwanted blockbuster sequel.
A painfully-extended catch up montage explains where the story finds us. Today two rival mega-companies are both chasing the ‘Permanence Code’ which will turn whatever you 3D laser print into a living thing.
In the blue corner are the goodies, led by Greta Lee and her breakfast burrito- munching ‘comedy’ sidekick (Arturo Castro). In the red corner are the baddies, led by Evan Peters’ bratty coder and his steely mum (Gillian Anderson) who have created a private army of ‘ultimate’ AI soldiers, armed with laser frisbees. Commanded by the titular Ares (Jared Leto) and his deputy Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), these infinitely expendable soldiers can leap into the real world, but only exist for 29 minutes, and then have to be reborn – something Ares is getting increasingly narked off about. And if the movies have taught us anything, it’s that you don’t want to nark off an elite, assassin-trained AI…
‘Who am I?’ Ares asks Peters on being reborn. ‘Not who, but what?’ corrects his creator where ‘who cares?’ would be more accurate.
There’s absolutely nothing to engage you with this hollow, boring, airless and sexless movie. The special effects are less memorable than the wincingly obvious brand and product placement. Plus points? A terrific score by Nine Inch Nails. Also the trailer is properly exciting. Save yourself 119 minutes and re-watch that.
LARUSHKA IVAN-ZADEH
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