I don’t mind the decor, though having said that I have a feeling it won’t age too well. I can see how some would find it bland though.
One thing I find hasn’t worked well is the way the stations are laid out dumping people at the extreme ends of the platforms, which unfortunately isn’t something which will ever be able to fixed. There seems to be a big issue with the ends of the trains and platforms becoming crowded.
On the plus side, Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road are excellent and the positioning of the surface buildings is spot on at these two, it works well.
There does seem to have been a strategy of looking at what the Victoria Line did in the 1960s, and doing the opposite.
- Individual decoration of stations, some appropriate to their locality, given up for the same colour scheme everywhere.
- Platform entrances at different points deliberately calculated with the expected passenger flow to balance loads up and down the train, given up for entrances in the core at the extreme ends, which now added with people hanging around for their desired through train physically prevents walking through the throng to the less-busy middle.
- Cross platform interchange with other lines, given up for tortuous passages ending up facing where you got off a few minutes ago (Custom House, Abbey Wood, looking at you).
- Minimised walking distances given up for the opposite. Custom House, where the entrance and DLR platforms have the huge Eliz substation put just where the platforms should be, and the latter pushed 1/4 mile to the east, instead of the other way round. I do wonder if the builders were given the drawings in reverse.
