London’s Euston Station has replaced its departure board with a huge monitor in anticipation of the station soon displaying adverts, invoking fury among critics.
Part of the interchange, which officials describe as an ‘obsolete old departure board’ has been removed, with the station looking to donate it to railway heritage.
Officials also say passengers have been using new information monitors instead of the old board, which also used to have advertising space on either side.
These new boards, which JCDecaux will be hosting, display more information, including London Overground timings and engineering works updates.
Yet the decision has caused a backlash among commentators who are angry that Euston Station has ‘blatantly prioritised advertisers over passengers’.
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Taking to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, one user stated: To be clear, I don’t wanna get mixed up, did Euston swap out a highly practical very visible departure board for crap departure boards, only to replace the big board with advertising?”
One user complained, “blatantly prioritising advertisers over passengers”, while another stated, “There is only one thing that should be going up there – train information.”
One tongue-in-cheek comment by YouTuber Jen OnTheMove added: “Put the scaffolding back up, it was better than this.”
In response, Network Rail’s West Coast south route head of stations and passenger experience, Simon Bennett, stated:
“We’ve been making changes to London Euston station including a new passenger seating area, hi-tech departure boards inside and out and information on screens leading to platforms. But we know there is still more we need to do.
“Advertising is one way in which we are generating revenue to fund improvements for passengers, and we are working with the Government and third parties on long-term station investment opportunities.”
1 Comment. Leave new
I’m sitting in Euston station trying and failing to read the high tech information boards from the seating area, from where the original information displays used to be easily read. The irony is that the huge green advert for Ovo is partly obscured by the spanking new displays so I don’t actually know what ovo is. Did we actually pay for this?