The London Overground is a distinct feature of the capital's sprawling transport network. It's estimated to have served over 150 million passengers last year and is almost twice as long as the longest tube line at a whopping 104 miles long, stretching out of London to Watford Junction and Chesnutt. This complexity - when paired with growing calls for London's diversity to be better represented - led TfL and the Mayor of London, in 2023 to begin work on rebranding the Overground. Splitting it from 1 massive tree to 6 simpler branches. But what are the changes? And why were they made?
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(Image: Transport for London)
What changes are being made?
As of this week, the London Overground has been split into 6 distinct lines. Anyone who travels on the Overground even semi-regularly knows that navigating it is no easy feat. It has several branches so determining which train to take or what is under maintenance can be incredibly difficult. TfL hopes to alleviate this difficulty for its passengers, especially for those with impairments that could make navigating such a mess of trains difficult. Here are the new 6 lines:
- Liberty Line: The short, 3-stop suburban branch from Upminster through Emerson Park to Romford.
- Mildmay Line: The longer branch stretching from southwest London, up north into the city. It starts at Stratford and runs through Hackney, Highbury & Islington before branching at Wilsden Junction into one line running to Richmond and another to Clapham Junction.
- Lioness Line: Starting in central London at Euston before taking a trip to the northwest, running through Wembley and terminating at Watford Junction.
- Suffragette Line: A shorter line starts in Gospel Oak, passes through Tottenham, and stretches west to the end in Barking Riverside.
- Weaver Line: This northern branch starts in Liverpool Street before quickly branching into two separate routes both of which converge at Hackney Downs and then go north to Chingford or towards Seven Sisters where a small split separates lines to Chesnutt or to Enfield Town
- Windrush Line: Lastly, this line stretches south from Highbury & Islington before a triple branch at Surrey Quays. One goes one stop to New Cross, another to nearby New Cross Gate and lastly one to Clapham Junction. From the new cross gate, the line then continues south to west Croydon or Crystal Palace.
With this rebrand of course comes new in-station and on-train branding. The new lines are represented as a distinct solid colour with a white gap between them to distinguish it as an overground train. The classic overground roundel is also still present, just as the Underground branding is still present on all tube lines. Each new line has its own colour:
- Liberty: boulder grey
- Mildmay: electric blue
- Lioness: squash yellow
- Suffragette: fern green
- Weaver: hibiscus pink
- Windrush: rose red
As I did, you are likely asking - why those names? Why any change at all?
Why are the changes being made?
A report from the beginning of last year shows the new designs, boast better readability and navigability as well as being easier to understand for neurodivergent travellers with motor/sensory impairments. Anyone who frequently navigated the mess that the Overground was can attest it's several branches and 113 stations are not easy to get around.
There is also the representation argument, London undoubtedly has a rich, diverse history and an everchanging identity. The current names are either descriptive(DLR, Waterloo & City, Northern etc.) or ceremonial (Jubilee, Piccadilly, Elizabeth etc.). Virtually none of them represent any of the marginalized groups which have helped to shape London into London. This rebrand seeks to address this. A series of stories, descriptions and reports from TfL explain the choice behind each of them largely revolving around London's growing diversity.
The Windrush line honours the Caribbean immigrants brought over on the HMT Windrush in June of 1948 to help rebuild critical British infrastructure and industry. It also honours the painful lives they lived, being met mainly with intolerance and abuse despite massively contributing to their communities, creating a lasting legacy that still stands today. TfL put it best:
"From helping to rebuild Britain after the second world war to continuing to build London's vibrant culture today."
The Weaver Line honours the textile trade that shaped so many London communities especially those the line passes through, notably Hackney, Liverpool Street and more. It started with the Huguenots in the 17th century, quickly joined by Irish weavers after the collapse of the Irish linen trades. Then at the end of the 19th century and during WW2, Jewish families came fleeing antisemitism in Eastern Europe, revitalising the area despite leaving often war-torn communities. More recently, in the post-WW2 era, the area has welcomed a flurry of Bangladeshi immigrants. Quite fittingly, the line also ends in Walthamstow, the home of renowned weaver William Morris.
These first two lines are a clear attempt to honour the work of immigrant communities in shaping the city but the next two honour and represent half of the entire city: women.
The suffragette line honours the famous suffragettes who fought for female suffrage at the turn of the 20th century, largely in London. While the name was originally coined by a Daily Mail reporter in order to belittle those fighting for equal suffrage, it quickly caught on and the freedom fighters used it proudly. This line honours the Women who so bravely fought for our rights and made every other fight since then possible. In a TfL poster about the new name and the impact of its namesake, they wrote:
"From standing up for you before you were born to empowering millions of women today and for centuries to come"
In a more modern form of women's empowerment, the Lioness line is proudly named after the British Women's football team who won the EUFA Women's EURO in 2022 and then went to the FIFA Women's World Cup finals a year after. The line runs through the heart of Wembley where the squad won the EURO in 2022 and where they call their home stadium. TfL wrote about the Lionesses and their new namesake well:
"From winning the European crown at Wembley to winning hearts and inspiring millions of new female footballers"
The uniquely short Liberty line "celebrates the freedom that is a defining feature of London" and references its local borough of Havering's unique history of independence.
Lastly, the Mildmay line is the namesake of a small but crucial charitable NHS hospital in Tower Hamlets. It has a long history of helping the city it sits in, from sending nurses into the East End's poorest slums during a cholera outbreak in the 1860s to treating an overwhelming number of casualties from the German Gotha Raids of WW1. However, its most notable impact is its service during the 1980s and 90s as an AIDS hospice - the first of its kind in Europe. It not only treated HIV/AIDS patients when the disease was heavily stigmatised but also hosted Princess Diana's HIV/AIDS advocacy efforts. It was the backdrop for the famous photo of the princess shaking an AIDS patient's hand. Time and time again it has been threatened with being and even been closed but it has persisted in its quest to do good. Today it still helps its community greatly, with specialist wings for drug and alcohol rehabilitation, neurodegenerative diseases and more; during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was also the main hospital for homeless Londoners with COVID-19.
TfL says they hope that the names will bring newfound attention to some of the lesser-known parts of London's history and the diversity that has forever shaped London's communities from both tourists and locals. It also provides easier use for the London overground, addressing issues of navigability and usability since the line began rapidly sprawling out in massive growths.
But how do Londoners feel about them? A March YouGov survey found that while the names came under mixed review, the sentiment of them being "woke" was much less common than as seen in the media and online. Some names also proved to be more popular than others. Women were more likely to like, and men more likely to dislike the Lioness and Suffragette lines as well as ethnic minorities proving to have more favourable opinions of the Windrush line than their white counterparts. Overall and almost counterintuitively, the blandest and least symbolically named line, the Liberty line proved to be the most popular.
Some common criticisms seemed to be that the Liberty line was fine but sounded over-American, the Suffragette and Lioness lines were called cheesy and most did not understand what "Mildmay" or "Weaver" meant. Interestingly some criticised the Windrush line's name as insulting as the members of the Windrush generation who were mistreated by the British government are yet to receive reparations. TfL also came under fire because while the Weaver line passes through the textile communities it is named after, it does not actually have any stops in it. A wide criticism was also that the rebranding cost an estimated 6.3 million pounds with many arguing that the money could have been put to more practical uses and less cultural ones.
It is yet to pan out how useful the change actually is, TfL is apparently updating 6000 station direction signs as well as maps, digital screens and online journey planners. However, it is definitely a good step to honouring the untold stories of London and the communities that, despite often facing endless abuse, have shaped the city into what it is today.
