With platforms 1.5x the length of a normal tube platform and the space available for potential expansion, there will be plenty of room for advertising at the upcoming Elizabeth Line’s Farringdon Station.
Speaking to Mediatel, Andy Scholes, Crossrail engineer, said that the platforms have been specifically designed to ensure the elimination of advertising “clutter”.
The available ad space will be almost entirely digital, with full height digital screens integrated into the glass platform doors used to separate commuters from the tracks. Only a handful of paper ads will be available – displayed in the hall and illuminated with a halo of lights.
Crucially, the back walls of the platforms will be entirely free of ads, a departure from ordinary tube platforms where much of the advertising is displayed towards people’s backs. With the Elizabeth Line, ads will always be in the commuter eye line.
Escalators will also be adorned with the continuous ‘ribbon’ video screens that Chris Reader, head of commercial media, TfL, teased in an article on Mediatel last year.
The Elizabeth line is Europe’s largest infrastructure project, with 42km of new tunnels under London, 10 new stations and upgrades at many others. TfL expects 82,000 passengers to use the service per day at peak time – once the service is fully operational in 2019.
By May 2019, TfL said there will be 24 trains an hour – adding 10% to central London’s rail capacity, reducing journey times and increasing choice.
The Elizabeth Line opens December this year through central London, with services running between Paddington and Abbey Wood, Liverpool Street and Shenfield, and Paddington and Heathrow. The full line to Reading will open December 2019.
In continuation of Exterion’s “Hello London” partnership with TfL, advertising will be a joint sales campaign between the two companies.
