*the “London Overground Lines” – Named & Coloured – Nov 2024

Thursday 28^th November (last week), saw quite a big change take place in London’s rail network – the official launch of an initiative that has certainly caused quite a bit of a talking point amongst Londoners in terms of opinions.

Now – I’m sure that almost everyone is aware of and has at some time or another experienced London’s Underground/Tube network – and the fact that each individual tube line has its very own colour on a standard London Tube map.

However – not many may be fully aware of the “London Overground” rail network – which over the past decade or so, has really risen to prominence, in terms of its importance in getting Londoners (& visitors) to and from every nook & crannie of the Metropolis and beyond.

It now compliments the tube as a pivotal network of transport – linking up with major stations, mainly on the underground – virtually making no area/district of London inaccessible.

But – it wasn’t always like that – certainly not during my 44 years of commuting back and forth to many locations throughout London, during my working years.

Today – London Overground serves Greater London, even right out as far as Hertfordshire.

It consists of 100 miles of track – 113 stations on 6  lines – which serve 3 million passengers per week.

The London Overground as an entity, has been in operation since 2007 – and is now mainly controlled by Transport for London (TfL).

However – long before that, each of its lines were operated by different Railway franchises – and most were under the management of Network Rail – there was no uniformity across the network.

Gradually – throughout the past couple few decades TfL have taken control of the Greater London sections of lines that once were under the management of rail companies such as the:- East London Line / South Eastern Rail / South Western Rail / London Midland plus many others.

Having acquired the management of these sections of Line – TfL, with the aid of the Government’s Department of Transport money plus outside investment – undertook a massive overhaul of the entire overground rail network operating within the London area.

Significant extensions were built onto the existing overground lines

Lines and stations to the north of London were linked up to stations that served the south of the River – and these stations were then linked up to lines that operated to the far west and the far east of London.

In some cases, brand new stations were built, especially where new tracks for new routes had been laid.

New interchanges were created, to enable passengers to change from one line to another.

By 2015 following decades of planning and construction work – one of the final bits of the jigsaw, saw the ownership of the Liverpool Street to Enfield and to Cheshunt services in the north of London – plus the Romford to Upminster service in the east – transferred over to TfL.

The existing ‘colour scheme’ of the London Overground was ‘orange’ – and so if you were looking at a standard combined Tube/Overground map – you would see all these orange lines squiggling in and out of and around – the tube lines……it wasn’t the easiest map to follow if you were looking to specifically identify and follow a London Overground route.

So – throughout the past few years, London Overground, with the support of London Mayor-Sadiq Khan, have been thinking of ways in which to ‘re-brand’ the London Overground line network, and to simplify it, thus making the network easier to navigate around – and to make the standard London Tube/Overground map more “user friendly’’.

The outcome is that, as from last week – each of the 6 individual London Overground lines – now has its own ‘Name’ and ‘Colour’.

The newly named London Overground lines are now:-

• The “LIONESS” Line – coloured – YELLOW
• The “MILDMAY” Line – coloured – BLUE
• The “WEAVER” Line – coloured – MAROON
• The “LIBERTY” Line – coloured – GREY
• The “SUFFAGETTE” Line – coloured – GREEN
• The “WINDRUSH” Line – coloured – RED

This is why they are so named: –

• The LIONESS Line – runs from Euston to Watford Junction, passing through Wembley Central where in July 2022 the England Ladies Football Team (nicknamed the Lionesses) won the Women’s Euros Final – the first ever football tournament in this country since the men’s 1966 World Cup Final victory.

• The MILDMAY Line – runs from Stratford through to Richmond and/or Clapham. It passes through ‘Shoreditch’ and celebrates the Mildmay Hospital situated there – a charitable hospital that provide vital care and treatment throughout the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980’s.

• The WEAVER line – runs from Liverpool Street in the city – and goes out to Enfield Town and also Cheshunt in Herts. The line is named to commemorate the importance of the thriving textile trade that was once one of the City of London’s most prominent and most important industries.

 

• The LIBERTY Line – runs from Romford to the far east of London, through to Upminster – even further east. It’s a shunt type service as it only consists of 3 stops – but its Liberty title celebrates the freedom that is a defining feature of London and references the historical independence of the people of the London Borough of Havering, through which it runs.

• The SUFFRAGETTE Line – connects Gospel Oak to the north west of London – to Barking Riverside – a ‘new’ town being built alongside the River Thames to the east of London – just a couple of miles ‘down the track’ from Barking town centre. It is so named to commemorate the East End of London’s working classes who fought hard for Women’s Rights. The town of Barking was home to ‘Annie Huggett’ the last surviving Suffragette when she died in 1996 at the grand old age of 103.

• The WINDRUSH Line – connects Highbury & Islington in the north of London – to areas such as Clapham / New Cross / Crystal Palace / West Croydon – to the very south of London. It is so named to honour the ‘Windrush Communities’ who migrated to the UK from the Caribbean to help rebuild London after the devastation of WW2 – and the line travels through areas with strong Caribbean communities – for example Dalston / Peckham Rye / West Croydon plus many more.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph of this piece – Thursday 28^th Nov (last week) finally saw the official launch of this re-brand – and the following day, my London Shoes went out on-the-road (well…on-the- tracks to be precise) to check out all these changes and take a look at the new signage.

Starting off at Euston main line station, my ‘Shoes’ went in search of its ‘Lioness’ line and its signage – which I found was prominently displayed and easy to identify.

Then I jumped on a Northern Line tube up to Camden Town – then walked the streets of Camden  to ‘Camden Road’ Overground Station – where I could see that new signage and line colour branding was already in place – making it easy to see where the next interchange was onto either another Overground Line or Tube Line.

Shoes then travelled on the Stratford to Richmond London Overground Line onto ‘Gospel Oak’ station – where there are 2 big connections to other London Overground lines – the Suffragette Line (to Barking Riverside) and the Mildmay Line to either Stratford or Richmond.

From Gospel Oak – I then stayed on the Overground and headed off eastwards to Highbury & Islington station – another pivotal north London station that interchanges with both the Tube and Overground.

The Highbury & Islington London Overground station services both the Mildmay Line to Stratford to the east and/or Richmond or Clapham south of the River – or the Windrush Line which heads off to Clapham / New Cross / Crystal Palace or West Croydon in deepest South London.

As an aside – while I was up at Highbury & Islington Overground earlier – I had a wander around and found myself in the Essex Road part of N1 – where I stopped off at the ‘Green Man’ pub for a quick liquid refreshment. An interesting old-skool pub this one, as it dates back to 1866 and was built at the time a Peabody Housing Estate was being built behind it (it’s still there) – as it was felt that having a new pub close by would be a community enhancement for the estates 600 residents.

Following my little liquid refreshment, London Shoes headed back to Highbury & Islington Overground station – and jumped on a train back home via Stratford London Overground station – which interchanges with other Overground lines plus the Elizabeth Line and 2 tube lines, the Central and the Jubilee Line. Stratford is also where the Windrush and Mildmay Overground lines interchange. (Stratford was a station I used for many many years and still do – and today it is one of London’s busiest stations…..it’s always totally manic there).

The final stop of checking out the new London Overground lines – took me to London Shoes ‘home’ station at Romford, at the far eastern side of London – where the newly branded ‘Liberty’ line exists – a line I’ve used many times, as it connects Romford with Upminster, which is the last stop on the District Line tube. Because the Romford to Upminster ‘Liberty’ line only consists of 3 stops, I didn’t expect there to be any of the new branding and signage on display – but surprisingly, there was – it was all over the shop!!!

As I touched upon briefly in the opening paragraph of this piece – it’s fair to say that there has been a lot of ‘discussion’ around the ‘naming’ of these 6 London Overground lines.

The initiative has been driven by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, following engagement and in collaboration with staff / customers / communities / local historians / academics and transport specialists.

Now – I’ve never used my London Shoes as a platform for either mine or anyone else’s political views – and don’t intend to start now – but as a Londoner born & bred and someone who has lived, worked and socialised in London throughout all of my almost 68 years on this planet – I can fully understand and appreciate some of the reactions, following the official launch of the 6 London Overground line ‘names’ last week.

What I will say is, as an almost daily user of London Underground and London Overground network – the personalisation of these 6 London Overground lines in terms of each one having its own ‘colour’ – makes perfect sense, particularly when viewing and trying to navigate a standard Tube/Overground map.

The linking up and the interchanges between Tube lines and other lines is not only practical, its brilliant – as a passenger can now travel almost anywhere throughout London, and beyond. Very few London areas/districts are inaccessible these days.

The availability of London Overground and its connections with other Overground lines and Tube lines – means that a whole load of previous ‘blockers/constraints’ are no longer an issue. For example – there is nothing now to stop someone living say to the east of London – from working in South London / South East London / South West London and beyond – because now a commuter can simply hop on the Tube or the Elizabeth Line – and then connect up with the London Overground network – travel under the River Thames and then beyond to the far reaches of South London….and vice versa.

From an employment/commuting perspective – its excellent, and potentially ‘cheaper’.

Using my own personal historic commuting experiences as an example – in today’s world, my days of having to commute into Central London to connect up with a Network Rail train service that would then have to take out of central London to work at places such as Hackney or Walthamstow or Dalston to the northeast of London……would no longer be an issue!!!!

In today’s world I would just need to get to somewhere like say Stratford, and then simply get on a London Overground line train, which would then take me directly to the northern districts of London – without the need to fork out hard earned cash for Zone 1 Central London travel……so – less time consuming and a lot cheaper!!!!!

So – to summarise – the rationale behind the naming of these 6 lines, has been explained by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who highlighted that “we’ve got to recognise that there are many, many stories that need to be told, and should be told – to reflect the capital’s rich and diverse history”.

For me personally, and without intending to sound political or churlish in any way shape or form – I just think it’s a great shame that no one ever considered perhaps the ‘Blitz’ line – to commemorate the many thousands of Londoners, men/women & children who lost their lives and those that survived but lost everything. Or perhaps the ‘Pie & Mash’ line – or – the Jellied Eels line in recognition of local culinary culture – or the ‘Pearly Line’ in recognition of London’s historic Pearly Kings & Queens who have raised thousands of pounds for charitable purposes – or maybe the ‘Pool of London’ line to commemorate what was once the largest and busiest port on this planet – there are plenty of other ‘potentials’ – but there you go – clearly my thought process is slightly different to that of the powers that be.

Anyway – that’s the launch of the London Overground line names and colour schemes for you – hope you enjoyed the read and that it made sense.

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See below the entire gallery of photos taken to accompany this blog article