Stickers on tubes: Graffiti or not?

Depot staff do have to remove them (and there have been notices to remove them on examination from management) because most times they obscure real stickers which may have information which may benefit people like priority seats, emergency alarm information or station stops on the map. Which only detracts staff from other essential maintenance.

It also gives the impression that London is untidy and dirty, and the lawless just run free, not something we want to be assisting!

Like everything - one or two is funny even I will admit, then everybody jumps on the bandwagon and starts printing them and it becomes a right pain and isn't funny any more as they are so common. If we are not careful soon enough our system will be like the Paris Metro - full of graffiti, crap and stickers. We are very fortunate that LU trains don't often enter service with graffiti on them, if they do they are cleaned very quickly!

Send the cleaning bill to the man selling the stickers!

(I know that's not possible as it's the usual scenario where someone can sell something quite legally even if it's obvious that the use of said product is almost certainly illegal - and there's unlikely to be any legal usage scenario)

WinterChief said:

It also gives the impression that London is untidy and dirty, and the lawless just run free

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I think that this particular impression has been held by many people for years, so these stickers cannot be blamed for that.

Paul Sidorczuk said:

I think that this particular impression has been held by many people for years, so these stickers cannot be blamed for that.

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I think the system, though not perfect, is a far cry from the dark days of the 80's. I recall the passageway between the Bakerloo and Northern lines at Elephant & Castle covered in 'tags' and other mindless graffitti. It gave the impression that the system had lost control or given up. These days, such a mess underground is rare. Also tube cars were usually litter strewn whereas today only the 'free' papers contribute to any noticeable litter.

I think that this particular impression has been held by many people for years, so these stickers cannot be blamed for that.

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Go on the Paris metro for a few trips on some of the lines, then go ride the underground and tell me what you think by comparison!!

The Underground is fantastically clean by comparison, and it shows on customer surveys. If we let this slip, anything could happen. I'd hate for it to degenerate. Something we should all be proud of as it is our tax.

It's one of those jokes that was funny the first few times, then slowly died (like calling an organisation the British Cheese Board or using a funny abbreviation). Eventually, you just get thoroughly sick of it.

I saw this on the news and i would say its humor and not graffiti.

WinterChief said:

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It also gives the impression that London is untidy and dirty, and the lawless just run free, not something we want to be assisting!
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Until I saw these stickers being dicussed I did not even realise that they existed - I've never seen one 'in the wild'. This shows how effective LU's cleaners are at removing them.

Yes London's transports are a lot cleaner than they used to be, although sometimes when the works at stations included new false panels over passageway & platform walls the effective result was also to reduce space - leading to an impression of worsening the overcrowding (ie: they would have been overcrowded anyway, but even the small amount of wall space that was removed has only served to make a bad situation worse). Especially at stations like Bank, Northern Line - although at least the new walls look nicer than the corrugated metal sheeting they replaced!!!

Another aspect of lawless out of control people 'running wild & free' relates to a small number of people who work in the areas around Bank (and Canary Wharf) stations... although (so far) matters related to financial crimes have not significantly impacted upon the Underground. Maybe in time the people behind these stickers will leave the transport systems alone / widen their horizons to other fields of human toil.

I saw a sticker today on a Jubilee train which had been partly peeled off, and it looked like it had taken the interior paint of the carriage off with it.

Health and Safety becomes the new graffiti artist!