New names and colours for London Overground lines will be gradually introduced between tomorrow, Wednesday, 20th November and next Monday, 25th November.
Once the new names and colours have been introduced, the changes will be visible on Transport for London‘s customer information channels and at some London Overground stations.
The changes are being introduced gradually because of the large numbers of maps, diagrams, and information systems that need to be updated.
London Overground lines will now be known by the following names and colours:
- Lioness (Watford Junction to Euston) – yellow
- Mildmay (Richmond and Clapham Junction to Stratford) – blue
- Windrush (Highbury & Islington to New Cross, Clapham Junction, Crystal Palace and West Croydon) – red
- Weaver (Liverpool Street to Enfield Town, Cheshunt and Chingford) – maroon
- Suffragette (Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside) – green
- Liberty (Romford to Upminster) – grey
The new names were decided after consulting stakeholders, customers, staff, historians, industry experts and communities, and take into account the diverse history and culture that played a significant role in shaping London.
Overall, the change will involve updating around 6,000 station wayfinding signs, Tube maps, station digital screens, onboard train information, Journey Planner and TfL Go. Changes will also need to be made to audio and visual announcements on trains and stations.
The update will take nine days to roll out new signage unveiled at the 113 stations on London Overground.
Maps and line diagrams on the London Overground fleet will also need updating, as well as the audiovisual passenger information system on the Class 378 trains that operate the Lioness, Mildmay and Windrush lines.
There is also the need to replace the Tube maps at every station, update maps on the Transport for London website, and update customer information screens and PA announcements at London Overground stations.
The Transport for London website and TfL Go are due to be updated by mid-December, followed in January 2025 by the audiovisual passenger information system on the Class 710 trains.
To help people familiarise themselves with the new names and colours, Transport for London has been running a series of its ‘Mind the Gap’ podcasts that look into the history of each line’s name.
The walking app ‘Go Jauntly’ has also launched six self-guided walks to help celebrate the names, with each walk looking into the stories behind the name and points of interest on the route.
“This is an exciting step as millions of customer journeys on the London Overground will be transformed by making it simpler to navigate. Individual line colours and names have helped customers navigate the Tube for more than a hundred years, so we wanted to take a similar approach on the London Overground. These changes will help improve customer confidence when travelling and encourage more to use our services.”
Andy Lord, London’s Transport Commissioner
Responses
Why not keep the current names but add the colours scheme to the 6 lines. I don’t seem why that renaming all 6 London Overground lines is going to help people navigate across London whilst using the London Overground.
This smacks of vanity and expense, that currently is not needed
Huge expense with all the signage changes, new maps for rolling stock etc. It’s not going to change a thing as to reliability or punctuality. A total waste of taxpayers money.
If it ain’t broke why fix it? another vanity project to take us of the real issues in London (knife crime etc)
As if the people who use the trains give a hoot all they ask is a half decent service
Wonder how many of the ‘consultants actually live and work in London
But it was broke. The Overground was a confusing spaghetti of lines and it made maps unintelligible. Did you ever see the line maps inside a Victoria Line train? Five interchanges with “Overground 🟧”, all with different lines. Passengers were confused by it. Public information announcements about any service problems often just referred to “Overground” and so passengers wouldn’t know whether it was their line that was affected.
Can you imagine if the Bakerloo, Central, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines were all just known as “Tube Lines” with no distinction between them? That’s how the Overground has been.
No mention of how much this is costing.