How a small design change can minimize confusion — The London Tube

Anyone who lives in London can relate to commuter chaos in a city of 9.1m people. Although most people can just attribute the chaos to the realities of living in a highly populous city, there are definitely small improvements which can be made to the tube system to help commuters arrive at their destinations more smoothly. While most tube platforms house one tube line, there are some which house three, which can lead to confusion about which train belongs to which line.

Which lines are they?

On the District, Circle and Hammersmith and City lines specifically it is difficult to immediately identify which line the train in question belongs to as the same train design is used for all three lines. The current design has three main areas which show the name of the line: The front, the sides and the back of the train. Unfortunately, if you are running to catch the train on any of the lines mentioned above, it is not always easy to figure out which line the train is for straight away unless you walk down the platform to read the side of it. Additionally, for those who are illiterate it is even harder to identify.

The idea

The use of colored LED lights at the top of trains would help commuters identify the train lines quicker. Hammersmith and City = Pink, Circle Line = Yellow and District Line = Green. The lights would change depending on the route of the line. It would look something like this:

Previously, the colors of the handrails inside the tube showed commuters which line the train belonged to, however, this changed with the introduction of new trains and a uniform design. The LED lighting system gives way to a more bespoke design, with commuters being able to ease their confusion at a quick glance.

The current outer lights on the tubes are yellow on the newer trains. The introduction of colored lights would replace these generic yellow lights as a cost saving idea.