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Fury as Sadiq Khan's ‘woke' rebranding of TFL named ‘2024 highlight'

by DD Staff

December 30, 2024

Sadiq Khan in the london tube smiling

key takeaways

The decision by Transport for London (TfL) to list their "woke" rebranding of the London Overground as one of the year's "top moments" has angered British citizens on social media.

TfL published an article ahead of the new year that listed several progressive causes as the service's major accomplishments for 2024, but it made no mention of enhancing customer experiences.

The article comes after a copious amount of complaints and overwhelming dissatisfaction surrounding the delays on the network, The Telegraph reports.

Despite this, Sadiq Khan's TfL placed the controversial renaming of the London Overground at the top of its list. The rebrand saw names switched to: Liberty, Lioness, Mildmay, Suffragette, Weaver and Windrush.

The transport service explained how the move was aimed at celebrating London's cultural heritage as well as making those parts of the network easier to navigate for people from ethnic minorities by giving the lines distinct names.

TfL's second key achievement of the year was a "colourful celebration of Pride". Mr Khan faced heavy backlash for spending £6million of public money to push what was labelled by some as a "diversity agenda", opposed to making practical travel improvements.

"From rainbow buses to Pride-inspired carriage designs, TFL took to the parade this year and showed its support for the LGBTQIA+ community in style," the article read.

Other moments TfL have highlighted include a special Tube map being made to mark Taylor Swift's Eras tour in London. A clothing design video filmed on the Elizabeth Line was also mentioned for its "creative streak".

The article round-up has faced serious criticism online due to its apparent lack of focus on passenger experience.

Writing on the social media platform X, one person said: "Spending so much money on virtue-signalling you forgot your job was to provide a safe, clean, reliable service."

Another added: "All this stuff is great and all that, but you have been incapable of running even a half-decent service for the past few weeks, especially on the Piccadilly Line.

"Maybe more focus on the essentials is required."

Passenger satisfaction with the Tube has dropped significantly from around 85% to 75% in the months following Covid pandemic, remaining at a similar level since, according to Statista.