Suburban rail services in London, as in the rest of Great Britain, are run on a system of rail franchises and operated by a number of private train operating companies, managed by National Rail. South London is poorly served by the London Underground network, but does have a large number of suburban rail lines. Transport studies had suggested that the public perceived the South London rail network as confusing, with multiple operators and a lack of consistent information design, in contrast to the clarity of London Underground's Tube map. A pilot scheme was launched on 30 September 2003 to bring National Rail services operated by multiple companies at 41 stations under one branding umbrella within London.