'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Sydney / New South Wales Transport Discussion
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boronia
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by boronia »

Nothing like a bit of over-engineering when they put a small sign up.
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by Stu »

^ I've seen many of these types of mounting attention ns at stations in recent months, just in case the angle needs to be tweaked.

Did this signage come with graffiti scratching already in situ?
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Wayfinding "lollypops"

Post by lunchbox »

Railway Square, Sydney, August 2017. When introduced, there was much criticism of Transport for NSW's new wayfinding logos, which used capital letters instead of the widely recognised international symbols. These "lollypop" signs give no hint as to which direction the hapless traveller might take in order to find the train or light rail services. (They're behind the camera). By contrast, the major bus station in the background lacks any large capital "B", except on the individual bus stop blades. It seems that taxis, though they have always been a significant element in Sydney's alternative transport system, were just ignored by the wayfinding experts.

Perhaps visitors to Sydney from 2019 would be able to find their way more easily if the new Metro line was to be integrated fully with the rest of the train network, instead of having capital "M"s popping up everywhere......
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by Jurassic_Joke »

Wolli Creek has very recently gotten a nice little makeover.
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boronia
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Re: Wayfinding "lollypops"

Post by boronia »

lunchbox wrote:Railway Square, Sydney, August 2017. When introduced, there was much criticism of Transport for NSW's new wayfinding logos, which used capital letters instead of the widely recognised international symbols. These "lollypop" signs give no hint as to which direction the hapless traveller might take in order to find the train or light rail services. (They're behind the camera). By contrast, the major bus station in the background lacks any large capital "B", except on the individual bus stop blades. It seems that taxis, though they have always been a significant element in Sydney's alternative transport system, were just ignored by the wayfinding experts.

Perhaps visitors to Sydney from 2019 would be able to find their way more easily if the new Metro line was to be integrated fully with the rest of the train network, instead of having capital "M"s popping up everywhere......
And I wonder why many railway stations need these big T signs in locations where it is quite obvious there is a station there. Same with ferry wharfs.
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Re: Wayfinding "lollypops"

Post by Jurassic_Joke »

lunchbox wrote:Railway Square, Sydney, August 2017. When introduced, there was much criticism of Transport for NSW's new wayfinding logos
How much passenger feedback was actually taken into account during this entire project?

I remember when Town Hall had those navy platform signs in 2014, that look similar to the final design, except they showed the destinations too. I distinctly remembered they asked for passenger feedback then as it was a trial. I cannot honestly believe people went in and overwhelmingly said platform service information is bad, doesn't belong, get rid of it and now we have what we have - except obviously, once enough people then complained the other way, we're slowly seeing this platform service information creep back. I mean that deserves a shout-out (hence I post pics of where I find it coming back), but yeah.


What Lunchbox is talking about, I remember, it made headlines, including then Opposition spokeswoman Penny Henny (just stealing your nickname Swift, its a good one ;) ) prominently criticising it. It received media coverage and they still did nothing about it.

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/and-t-is- ... hoz8y.html

72% of people in that poll think the new signage is bad and that the old ones should be brought back. That's pretty significant.

So my question stands - TfNSW, exactly how much public feedback was taken into account? Or did it just become one huge free-for-all-we'll-do-what-we-want at the later stages?
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by crimsontide »

Like anything Government related , the words "lip service" come to mind.
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by moa999 »

Jurassic_Joke wrote:Wolli Creek has very recently gotten a nice little makeover.
Is that the first rollout of the new 'directional' notations.

Eg. T4 Eastern Suburbs Line vav T4 Illawarra Line
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by Aurora »

Really should consider replacing the 'Illawarra' wording with something else as in T4 Illawarra Line...
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by boronia »

Noticed this at Circular Quay.
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Any other stations got them?
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by swtt »

Next Stop Redfern (Central Platform 16/17?)
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by sunnyyan »

^ I think you meant 18-19.
They are present on all suburban platforms at Central, I think.

Also seen them at Museum.
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by Jurassic_Joke »

Those signs are about a year old - a bit of a flop, sent my feedback early and very glad this was not what was rolled out in the ensuing year to more stations. They're also on all the underground T4 Eastern Suburbs line stations, and its useless in my opinion. T4 is pretty much segregated from most of the rail network - so there's really no excuse why there isn't "Trains to City / Waterfall or Cronulla / Bondi Junction", saying whats the next station is about as useful as having no information at all. You don't say!, Sherlock, Kings Cross is just around the corner? I know it is, I live here!

They also tried this at Parramatta, "Next Station Westmead" and it's a flop there too because you get Intercity trains stopping on that exact platform - and the next stop is NOT Westmead. Well at least on five days out of seven, nope. And the number of T1 trains "Next Stop Harris Park", that skip Harris Park.... "But anything as long as its not what Labor did :) "

However, in my opinion, it works on the City Circle because of very frequent trackwork which means trains from other lines often use it, so "next station this" is relevant in pretty much any context.
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by boronia »

swtt wrote:Next Stop Redfern (Central Platform 16/17?)
I hope not
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boronia
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by boronia »

Jurassic_Joke wrote: They also tried this at Parramatta, "Next Station Westmead" and it's a flop there too because you get Intercity trains stopping on that exact platform - and the next stop is NOT Westmead. Well at least on five days out of seven, nope. And the number of T1 trains "Next Stop Harris Park", that skip Harris Park.... "But anything as long as its not what Labor did :) "
There is a difference between "next station" and "next stop". The next stop is shown on the indicator boards.

In Japan, almost every station shows the previous and next stations on that line in smaller graphics under the main station name. Probably becoming a bit redundant these days with all the on board PIDs.

A few years ago large "next station" signs were placed on the ends of platforms in Sydney, where they could be seen as the trains left the station.
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by Jurassic_Joke »

boronia wrote: There is a difference between "next station" and "next stop". The next stop is shown on the indicator boards.
Agree - but the difference is not immediately obvious to the average person, in my opinion. If you stopped and thought about it, yes - but TfNSW already made their intentions clear thats not what they wanted people to do, hence they introduced "Platform 1 + 2 (with no service info)" eg, and you basically figure out which platform you need beforehand on your phone so you don't clutter the concourse. I think its a similar motive around why they removed "Way out -> / Buses / Alight for ___" from the station name signs on the platform.
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by Swift »

What about the not inconsiderable percentile of people that are not smart phone literate? Isn't this discriminatory?
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by crimsontide »

Swift wrote:What about the not inconsiderable percentile of people that are not smart phone literate? Isn't this discriminatory?
Have raised this issue in the past with Management, and the response was just a Shoulder shrug , and "they'll have to get used to it."
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by Swift »

I bet they wouldn't so willingly show a dismissive attitude if the Human Rights Commission came knocking.
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by Tonymercury »

Swift wrote:What about the not inconsiderable percentile of people that are not smart phone literate? Isn't this discriminatory?
Or have issues using anything other than a full sized keyboard? Or can;t manage fingers at all.
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by Jurassic_Joke »

While I appreciate how Town Hall station is starting to look in terms of renovation, they should really do something about the Hop way finding at this station because its a complete shambles.

Specifically, the cardboard signs that have been here for 2+ years are looking worn, cheap and even less professional than what they replaced. Surely it doesn't take that long/much effort to put in place the solid ones?

That goes for not only the platform signs on the glass wall (which I might add, they've removed all the ones for platforms 1 and 2), but also the exit signage, most of which looks ready to fall down on someones head. This is one of Sydneys flagship stations, it deserves better.
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by Campbelltown busboy »

Leumeah has now got the orange hop signs witch replace the signs from the 1990s witch were white with the color stripe that indicated what line you were traveling on under the name of the station
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by Jurassic_Joke »

Can’t upload a pic just yet, but below Martin Places’ concourse screens, they’ve already put the new T4 line maps so now it’s just called T4 Illawarra / Cronulla and [Intercity] South Coast. Including a new shade of blue for T4 and slightly different design scheme

Looks like we will indeed see some new signs come in as the new timetable and network map comes into effect
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by mandonov »

There will be a new train network map every year for three to four years in a row.

One for this Novemeber.
One for ECRL shutdown in 2018.
One for Metro opening and possible Carlingford closure in 2019.
One for possible Carlingford closure in 2020.
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Re: 'The Hop' Branding Rollout

Post by moa999 »

Don't think we had a Town Hall Reno thread, so here will do, but noticed over the weekend that they have installed some additional wayfinding signs near each escalator. Usual metal exterior with orange trim.

But these are electronic. We're displaying Testing when I saw them, but presumably will be used with the escalator direction changes that occur at Town Hall as the flows alter.
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