This is a quite different post especially considering the considerably hot weather that abounds at the moment, nevertheless I expect there are those who could be enjoying what is in fact ‘cool’ weather. Even though this post is about changes at TfL (see further down) the current weather must no doubt be commented upon first. There’s no arguing it is ‘cool’ if current predictions are anything to go by. In future years it will be even hotter. Its an upward trend that has gone on for decades and yet humanity continues to elevate the planet’s overall temperature by way of air travel, war, mineral extraction, waste dumping in huge landfill sites, environmental pollution and the rest of it.

Campaigners have been aware of this since the 1970s especially with the onset of plastics and increased roads/air travel and its a reason I became an environmentalist in those far off days – exactly the year the first really massive heatwave impacted the UK – the hot summer of 1976. In those days we were promised that the new fad known as recyclables would solve the world’s problems. Instead we’ve pervaded the planet with vast swathes of pollution including micro-plastics that can be found everywhere from the atmosphere to the deepest parts of the oceans and spilled fossil fuels right across the oceans as well as expended these into what are masses of pollution caused by humanity’s sheer insensibility for war.

In a sense a large tranche of current transportation means is completely against what I think it ought to be – because it damages the environment considerably. Its why I have not travelled for more than two decades. Even in terms of the UK’s railways, we know they pollute and that is because of the backwards thinking the UK has – which means electrification takes an enormous hit compared to countries such as India, who, despite their infinitely enormous problems, have managed to electrify practically 100% of their rail network. To add to that, I’ve often wanted to write about the horrific abomination that are airports etc, but I don’t think I have sufficient acumen to present an argument why both roads travel and air travel should be massively curtailed.

Aside from the current delight that is no doubt a proclivity of humanity’s innate desire for what can no doubt be a considerable destruction even for the planet’s unfortunate animals. Remember we’re decimating these at a hyper rate not known before, as well as turning the planet into an oven. No doubt nature ought to bite back – and in fact is doing that. Nature might look feeble but she can hit back much harder than all the might humans have.

TfL new look tube map poster backgrounds

Anyway let’s take a look at a current development that’s currently underway on London’s underground. Its not a lot in terms of the output I usually do but given the current conditions I am spending my time trying to avoid the oppressive heat. However this week I noticed that TfL have begun to make changes to their tube map racks – hence its a simple fairly subject to blog upon.

Generally these changes in in relation to TfL’s Art on the Underground endeavour. Its often why when there are changes the new background template, Art on the Underground gets a considerable mention. These new style posters reflect a number of art commissions that are sponsored by Reed thus they’ll probably be the normal standard for the next couple of years or so.

Pictured from this week are examples of those changes with the old stye thrown in for comparison.

An example seen in the raw at Paddington this week.

There have been other changes before and I have pictures of those – some are shown here. Generally the overall look of these tube map racks have remained the same for quiet a few years – with some tube stations continuing to show background templates from well before 2019 that are totally out of date. Its only now that an overall attempt appears to be underway to replace all the existing information that forms a background to these tube map racks. Perhaps this will be the moment TfL finally gets rid of all of its completely outdated tube map background information.

An example seen at Farringdon earlier this week. Grab those few maps before anyone else does! Pic taken 6th July 2026.

A number of stations including Baker Street continue to display outdated information such as Twitter accounts that have not existed for years. Pic taken 9th July 2026.

When one goes to https://twitter.com/tfltravelalerts as advised by TfL’s considerably outdated information at its stations, the account does not even exist!

The previous style of information originates from around 2018 – easily identifiable because its from an era when TfL had numerous Twitter accounts – including @TfLTravelAlerts. Most of these were ceased in September 2020. The had not existed for more than six years now thus these tube map boards are giving considerably outdated information.

An earlier example of an Art on the Underground background for the tube map racks. This is from 2020.

A different TfL tube map rack background look. Art on the Underground does not get a look in. This example is from Charing Cross tube station 2021.