London Euston station, which sees more than 90,000 commuters a day, recently received a mountain of backlash for swapping its passenger information board with a giant screen displaying adverts. A commuter described it as “one of the worst decisions ever made at an already poorly managed station.”
Information was inaccessible to passengers who travel to cities across the UK, including Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. This is because the 2,500 sq ft board was displaying adverts for ITVX, Canadian holidays and the new Transformers film.
Louis Haigh, the Transport Secretary, shared she had tasked Network Rail with turning off the advertising board as the station “simply hasn’t been good enough” for passengers.
The station was left overcrowded last week due to mass cancellations of Avanti West Coast trains, leaving thousands of commuters frustrated.
Ms Haigh said: “I’ve tasked Network Rail with coming up with a clear pplan to immediately improve conditions for passengers. This includes a shutdown of the advertising boards from today to review their use.
“We know Euston needs a permanent solution and are working hard to agree on this – but these immediate steps will help to alleviate some of the issues the station has been facing.”
Network Rail has confirmed that the screen has been switched off, and Euston will use heat modelling to review how the shutdown impacts passenger congestion.
A spokesperson for Network Rail said: “There is absolutely no doubt that the new configuration of passenger information boards improves passenger circulation and reduces congestion. We will never be going back to a bulkhead departure board. However popular it was, the facts prove that it was a hindrance to moving around the station. Bringing it back would make things even worse.”
A five-point plan, including a review of how the screen is used, has been put in place with the aim of improving the station.
Gary Walsh, route director for West Coast South, added: “Passengers haven’t received the experience they deserve at Euston recently, and we need to do better.
“Our five-point plan will help improve things for passengers in the short term by creating more space, providing better passenger information, and working as an industry to improve the reliability of train services on the West Coast Main Line.”