Prepare to be both delighted and outraged, as the names are revealed for renaming the London Overground branches.
Plans to split the spaghetti of Orange lines on the tube map were announced back in April 2021 as a manifesto pledge by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, but it has taken until 2024 to complete the consultations and announce the names that have been chosen.
At the moment, the TfL style guide for referring to the various bits of the London Overground says:
- North London line is now ‘Overground Richmond/Clapham Junction – Stratford’
- West London line is now ‘Overground Willesden Junction – Clapham Junction’
- DC line/Watford Euston DC is now ‘Overground Watford Junction – Euston’
- Gospel Oak to Barking is now ‘Overground Gospel Oak – Barking’
- East London line is now ‘Overground Dalston/Highbury & Islington – West Croydon/Crystal Palace/New Cross’
Renaming things is always controversial, delighting some and outraging many — and doubtless, there will be howls of protest about specific choices and colours, and people will be exclaiming that they, personally, would have done it differently.
The new line names are:
The Lioness line: Yellow
Euston to Watford Junction
The Mildmay line: Blue
Stratford to Richmond/Clapham Junction
The Mildmay line, which runs through Dalston, honours the small charitable hospital in Shoreditch that has cared for Londoners over many years, notably its pivotal role in the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
The Windrush line: Red
Highbury & Islington to Clapham Junction/New Cross/Crystal Palace/West Croydon
The Windrush line runs through areas with strong ties to Caribbean communities today, such as Dalston Junction, Peckham Rye and West Croydon and honours the Windrush generation.
The Weaver line: Maroon
Liverpool Street to Cheshunt/Enfield Town/Chingford
The Weaver line runs through Liverpool Street, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green and Hackney – areas of London known for their textile trades.
The Suffragette line: Green
Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside
The Suffragette line celebrates how the working-class movement in the East End, fought for votes for woman and paved the way for women’s rights. The line runs to Barking, home of the longest surviving Suffragette Annie Huggett.
The Liberty line: Grey
Romford to Upminster
(c) TfL
Although the lines are split into distinct colours and identities, the London Overground will continue to use the singular orange roundel for the entire service – not dissimilar to how the red roundel is used for the Underground service.
Now that the names have been announced, TfL will start the process of rebranding the line names, with the full rollout expected to be completed in one go by the end of the year.
TfL also confirmed that — obviously — validation and testing were undertaken to ensure the line colour selection was as inclusive as possible. This included active consideration of those with visual impairments, for example those with colour blindness. Engagement also took place with TfL’s Independent Disability Advisory Group (IDAG), as well as accessibility and inclusion stakeholders through TfL’s Inclusive Transport Forum.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “This is a hugely exciting moment, transforming how we think about London’s transport network.
“Giving each of the Overground lines distinct colours and identities will make it simpler and easier for passengers to get around. In re-imagining London’s tube map, we are also honouring and celebrating different parts of London’s unique local history and culture.”
Full details about the new names and large copies of the new tube maps are here.
Current tube map (c) TfL
New tube map (c) TfL
My sense is that a whole committee of people have spent too much time overthinking this.
I get the impression that thinking may be a pastime you find a gratuitous endeavour.
Others may find this a necessary task to overhaul a sometimes confusing map and set of routes.
I like the colours, I don’t really understand the reasoning behind the names….
I would have liked if the East London line could have kept the orange colour also.
Maybe the author should have explained the reasoning behind each of the names…. oh look he did, how did I miss that?
Same, what about using London rivers?
It’s a great shame one of the Lines was not called the Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA)
I’d have liked the Cosmopolitan Line to have been amongst the names chosen.
Agreed, a disappointment the new branch names in the London’s great train line cosmos didn’t include Cosmopolitan.
Also in reference to another contributor’s comment here about the Goblin line (abbrev. for Gospel Oak Barking Line), given Goblin was one of the 2023 words of the year, perhaps a Rizz Line would have been nice to have too.
I prefer the Espresso Martini line
As someone who doesn’t live in London I’ve always found the Overground network a bit confusing to work out routes, due to all the lines using the same colour and name. This makes it easiest to navigate, even if the different colours may take some getting used to.
We really are in “Camel” { A horse supposedly-designed by a committee } here, are we not?
I would have liked the overground lines to have maintained some visual feature in common. As proposed here, they are indistinguishable from the trams/DLR/Elizabeth line, except by colour. Perhaps the central stripe could have retained the old orange colour instead of being white?
Good idea
First thing I noticed! Mildmay is the wrong way round, it implies that you can go directly from Richmond to Clapham Junction, and also that you CANNOT go from Stratford to Clapham Junction (or CJ to Stratford) – but the opposite is true! Shocking!
Why? It’s not important for passengers to know which flavour of TFL-managed metro train they’re on. I honestly don’t really think they should distinguish the Elizabeth Line/DLR/Overground from the Tube – it’s not a very useful distinction from a passenger perspective.
As a colourblind person, I’m afraid I cannot tell the difference between the Windrush (red), the Weaver (maroon), the Suffragette (green) and the Liberty (grey). I will have to “learn” the lines because I cannot compare the colour on the map to the colour on the key. Not so bad if you regularly use the tube but colourblind visitors and occasional users will have problems.
How would that differ from the current situation where they are all the same colour already though?
I agree. I struggled at first.
Ian: I never used colour to identify the Overground. It was a series of discrete, geographically identified routes that made sense to me.
When will London Overground plan to Expand to Gatwick Airport in the future?
Is it just me who is really upset by the map snippets for the Mildmay line (pointwork at Willesden Junction is wrong) and on the Windrush Line New Cross is on the wrong side of the line.
Harry Beck will be turning in his grave!
Most of these names will not stand the test of time. In ten years time (or perhaps ten months) will anybody know what the significance of “The Lionesses” was? I also struggle to see how it will make the network easier to use – a passenger stood on Willesden Junction station travelling west will be faced with the “Mildmay Line” but nothing to tell him whether the train is going to Clapham Junction or Richmond beyond the destination dis[play which already exists. Similarly, the “Windrush Line” has four southern terminii. Simple route numbers, prominently displayed (in a manner similar to the old Southern Region/Railway headcodes, would have been far more straightforward. Is the Liberty Line a nod to Havering’s desire to exit from Greater London or in honour of Romford’s shopping centre?
I’d be much more in favour of renaming one or two stations than entire lines. In fact I’m not even convinced this renaming will happen. Truly bizarre times, it’s not really the same as moaning about a rename normally, these names are just ridiculous and seem temporary. They could have been a lot smarter with the names, but seem to have gone down the “everything is stupid and must be spoon fed” route.
I am colour blind… and if the mayor had bothered to ‘consult’ me I’d tell him I can’t tell the difference between maroon and red -certainly not on the scale of a map…
It will always be the North London line, East London line and Goblin for the rest of my days whatever the ‘rebrand’…
There are only so many colours
There was a pubic consultation where you could have raised that issue.
AND as mentioned in the article TFLs disability advisory committee was also consulted.
It would have been clearer to name the lines after local geography, as is usually done.
Why can’t you name the lines normally like West London line, Goblin line, etc. but to come up with names that will not be remembered by anyone? Not to mention they’ve already spent millions on consulting.
The names will be everywhere. They will be used in everyday conversation. They will be remembered by everyone. They just will.
Bizarre that this subject winds people up so much more than others. The names are fine.
You mean you as in Ian? Well he’s not responsible for this TFL is.
And they haven’t spent “millions” on the consultations at all.
I don’t like the fact that the lines aren’t associated with geography or even the stations on them. A bit weird overall.
Neither are like half of the tube lines
I like them. Better than I expected (thought it would be the “Goblin” for Suffragette line and “Harlequin” for the Lioness line).
Mildmay is a nice touch. The Weaver line is historical for the area – launch the line in the Crown and Shuttle pub?!
I guess some people will like them and some people won’t but the majority will quietly OK with them all
I like the new map, looks a lot better.
Indifferent about the names, but a bit of a pity Goblin wasn’t used, cos it’s kind of cute.
Ian.
What do you think of the names. In particular, their likely longevity?
Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
I think the names sound good apart from Lioness, sounds super forced to me but we’ll probably get used to it. Anyone that’s genuinely outraged by any of these names needs immediate assistance with their wellbeing
Nah Lioness sounds great. It fits in with the other regal lines like the Victoria, Elizabeth and Jubilee lines
What an utter waste of time and money, another vanity project. The TFL network can be complicated enough for people to navigate especially tourists. Is there really a need to change something that already works without issue?
The entire point is that the Overground is too complicated as everything is the same colour. This will make it easier to navigate, expecially for tourists
It doesn’t work without issue. There is a clear need for named lines. It is currently complicated, especially for tourists, and this will make it less complicated. This is money well spent (and not a lot of money at that).
It literally doesn’t work, and has many issues. I’ve lived in London for 6 years and find the overground maps/distinctions incredibly confusing. Announcement: “London Overground has severe delays / is part suspended” – *panic* oh wait it’s some random branch line miles and miles away in Romford which has absolutely no relevance to me here in Clapham. How the hell is a non-Londoner or someone whose first language isn’t English supposed to be able to follow any of that?
There’s a reason the tube lines have different names and colours; the same logic applies to the overground lines.
The names are a bit of a mouthful and aren’t particularly easy to pronounce or remember, but then again neither are the tube lines. A simple ‘Line 1’ or ‘Line A’ would be much more efficient, but people over the age of 40 argue against such logic and in favour of deranged folly in the same way that many argue against the introduction of metric road signs, and argued against decimal currency. Alas here we are.
The Overground Line is dead; long live the *insert new name* here.
@Andy
I’m referring to the fact that these names seem somewhat cheap. If you wanted to relate the lines to the wind rush generation for example (I understand wind rush is a river in the uk originally) then there are better ways of doing it, more in line with traditional naming conventions. A person’s name etc. equally the lioness line, that’s even more bizarre. If these renames actually go ahead, I’d be surprised. Common sense needs to be engaged here.
Cool, let’s ditch the Jubilee, Victoria and Elizabeth line then, since two of them are names and one is now irrelevant (it was named after the Queen’s Silver Jubilee which was decades ago after all).
You said yourself, two of them are names as I suggested.
The jubilee line, I’d probably agree calling it the jubilee line was short sighted. But it’s still not as foolish as the lioness line.
Total waste of time
The names are meaningless
Typically waste of time by TFL
The Stratford line was always the North London line
And the service to Enfield was always known as the Jazz Line
Change for the sake of change
No they weren’t always.
The North London line was the Silverlink in the 90s, and the ‘Jazz line’ (first I’ve ever heard of this tbh) is referred to as the Lea Valley line. Things change.
If we had names for our travel around Leeds it would include….Leeds tramway scrapped. Headingley cancelled, Holbeck unfunded and Roundhay still waiting. Good to see more money being spent in London.
TfL is just spending their own money on this. No one else would have gotten any extra money if they didn’t do this.
London’s economy already massively subsidises the North and now you want us to spend the money raised by our extortionate train fairs up there too? Pull the other one.
Dont worry Alan, you’ll be fine when HS2 reaches Leeds. 🙂
What a waste of money. I can’t see Marylebone or Baker Street. I’m still looking. Far from making it easy to find where I want to go you are making it difficult to impossible and erasing my history. Give me my Bakerloo line back! How do I find my way now. Woke idiots!
Nice try, points for effort…
What are you on about? The bakerloo line isn’t being renamed because it is not an overground line
Could they have done things better?
Maybe
Does it really matter?
No
It would have been nice to connect South Hampstead with Highbury Islington via Camden Road (as it was the case during some special services last year), effectively creating a direct connection between Willesden Junction and Stratford.
There is already a direct connection between Willesden Junction and Stratford
Via the Mildmay line
Someone else who wants Primrose Hill back. 🙂
I must say I was surprised initially by the names, but after reading the history behind them I think that TFL have taken a good approach and have aimed to include communities and their past into the way we approach journey planning. to those who are complaining, please think about whether there is meaning in what you are saying. Whatever names would have been given, we would eventually learn them and get used to them. Let’s embrace these names as the future of transport. In fact this is better than the old white men from the 1950s deciding on what they like instead of what communities would prefer. I particularly like the Windrush line, as it is much accurate to communities than most of the other ones. Good to see lioness line instead of lion line.
I think they should’ve gone with letters:
Line A – North London because it’s via Acton and ’Ackney
Line B – to Barking
Line C – to Croydon, Clapham, Crystal Palace & (New) Cross
Line D – via Hackney Downs
Line E – from Euston
Line F – from romFord (ok, that’s a bit of a stretch, but it’s the shortest line so there’s not much to work with!)
Nah thats just really boring
How much has this cost, tfl & Mr Khan have been whining there is no money for public transport!
Euston to Watford line should be called the Euwat line (pronounced you what!)
Yes! XD
A small niggle, but the line map for the Mildmay line has a central junction pointing the wrong way.
I don’t know why they couldn’t have kept the geographic names of the lines, even if they changed the colours….. and I want my orange back for the East London (sorry, Windrush) Line, which has been orange from the old East London Days decades ago….
I do like how the Liberty Line is the smallest.
I don’t like how the Elizabeth Line can be confused with an overground line, now. C’mon, TFL, gimme a big fat Purple line on the map, as on the tube + rail map!
To those who are so opposed to the new names and complain about the ‘waste of money’, I’d really encourage you to reflect on why you’re so mad? Is it perhaps your political leanings make it so anything that acknowledges something ‘other’ makes your blood boil?
I think the names are great. Some are a bit cheesy, sure, but as the years go by, I’m sure some will become iconic and as easily recognizable as ‘Bakerloo’ or ‘Jubilee’, which in hindsight are quite bad names.
If you genuinely think naming a line in an international hub city ‘Goblin’ because it’s a funny inside joke to locals is a good idea – I don’t know what to tell you.
If you think a couple million dollars to improve accessibility and usability is a ‘waste of money’ while voting for billions in tax cuts, I also don’t know what to tell you.
Thank you George. finally someone with sense. Excellent!
George, you said yourself, the names are cheesy. I haven’t seen anyone get blood boiled apart from one or two posts. The names are just daft. It’s ok to say that without being accused. Not that you are accusing, but I’m not really sure what you are suggesting either in regards to your first paragraph.
These names are mostly pretty cringe but then so is the Elizabeth line, and we got used to that.
Move on, and enjoy how angry it’s making all the swivel eyed ranting racist gammon who probably blame Sadiq Khan when they stub their toe.
“Gammon” racist slur
“Swivel eyed” slur based on disability.
Ironically prejudiced comment
The Mayor isn’t responsible for education.
If you educated yourself you’d know that the individual Boroughs are. Oh and parents too.
And you’d also know that ransom capitalisation of words isn’t proper English.
And that the Overground isn’t the same as the tube.
I like them for the most part. The Mildmay line could also be referencing the old Mildmay Park section and former station between Canonbury and Dalston. Also glad they didn’t cave to naming the Gospel/Barking line the Goblin – it’s cute, but not as obvious as the Bakerloo, and a bit redundant like Battersea Power Station – no more of that silliness, please!
I’m sure the Windrush name is already getting the blood of a certain contingent of the Internet boiling, but hey, better here than the Tilbury loop of the C2C, eh? 😉
Hello, you have reached the Suffragette line.
For voting rights, please press 1.
For anything else, please press 2.
Sanctimonious naming
To me the names are leaning heavily towards political correctness/Woke
Liberty line… until you are in a wheelchair and cannot get up the steps at Upminster…
I think that the main thing I take away from this is that the map is running out of colours. Just look at Stratford, where the Liz Line, the DLR and the Mildmay Line are all represented by very similar bluey-greeney-purpley double lines.
And I wonder how many people will read the map as showing the Liz Line as having a branch to Upminster.
I know it went through a round with the Independent Disability Advisory Group, but I’m quite surprised by the final colour choices. They’re quite similar to existing tube lines and a couple of them are difficult to distinguish.
It’s better than a sea of orange, of course. I am surprised to see that orange won’t be on the map at all now though. Retaining it for the original East London (now Windrush) would’ve been nice.
As for the names? Not really a fan of them, but I’m sure they’ll grow on me. I hated the “Elizabeth” line but now say it without thinking.
Personally would’ve preferred a geographical approach. Geoff Marshall went with North London/East London/Watford/Goblin/Lea Valley/Emerson, These made perfect sense and reflected what most, including TfL, already call the lines.
I can’t wait to read the arguments when TfL actually applies this branding in the wild.
Ugh. Bringing values and social justice to transport naming is just petty and provocative.
Missed opportunity on the Suffragette line colours.
Green one side, purple the other, white in the middle, and then it matches the suffragette sashes.
Although multi-colours would look garish if done for all the lines it might make them more distinguishable for colourblind
Given TfL are in debt this seems an unnecessary waste of money. I understood that the North London Line went round the North of of London, that the West London Line went from Willesden to Clapham on the west side of London and that the Euston-Watford line went to Watford. The new names mean nothing to me. The wholesale renumbering and rerouting of London buses already means I no longer know how I get somewhere and I can’t see how this will help.