All aboard the Nike Northern line? Why corporate takeovers of London’s tube are a terrible idea

by HighburyAndIslington

7 comments

  1. Are the country as a whole willing to pay higher taxes or cut other services or are us Londoners willing to pay even higher fares?

    If not this seems inevitable, notably the author doesn’t seem to offer any alternatives.

    Only alternative I can see is some independent taxation powers for London, a tourist tax would be ideal imo

  2. If people paid for their tickets, or the government followed every other government around the world and supported the underground then maybe corporate sponsorship wouldn’t be required.

    But Tfl has no money. It needs it. Everyone can see the walls falling apart, the constant vandalism or trains as there’s no money for security or fixing things.

    It’s a bad way to go, but due to people being selfish on a large scale it’s needed

  3. I’m fine with TfL getting some extra revenue sources if it means our already extortionate ticket prices don’t keep increasing. Complain all you want but running the oldest and most useful public transport systems in the world is not cheap.

  4. I’d rather go on the Nike northern line for £2.50 than the northern line for £3.75

  5. lmao, given how is only real argument is confusion, wasnt renaming the overground lines a terrible idea as well. and in terms of confusion, tfl should fix the tap in/out situation first especially for stations that link to non oyster fare zones

    no issue with these takeovers as long as they use that money well and get better staff to negotiate their deals

  6. I highly suspect that naming rights for a tube line would not raise as much money as they think – Emirates Air Line was only £3.6M a year as the article says. 

    Why would a brand want to pay for naming rights for, say, the Northern line and have their name repeated constantly every time the line is screwed up?

    TfL’s budget is £10B a year, this is literally a drop in the ocean and won’t have any noticeable impact on fares.

  7. As long as they don’t change the bleeding station names again, any cash injection is good.

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