Rail passengers using West Croydon Station this morning will have boarded trains on the Windrush line for the first time, as Transport for London rolls out its new names and livery for the London Overground.
Signs of change: it is taking TfL almost a week to roll out all the new signage for the London Overground
The roll-out is being phased, simply because of the scale of the operation involved across 113 stations, and the six London Overground lines, as they are given their own individual designation on the London Tube map, which has been in use for 101 years.
On the maps, the Overground lines are each given a double line in a fresh new colour. What used to be the East London line, terminating at West Croydon after running from Highbury and Islington to New Cross, Clapham Junction and Crystal Palace, is now pillar box red and the Windrush line.
“Customers will soon start to find navigating the London Overground easier,” Transport for London promises.
Colour scheme: the Windrush line and its five other London Overground services, starting in new hues from today
This is one of “the largest customer-focused projects TfL has ever undertaken”, the transport authority says.
TfL will update around 6,000 station wayfinding signs, Tube maps, station digital screens, onboard train information, Journey Planner and TfL Go. Audio and visual announcements on trains and stations will also be updated.
The rollout is taking place as follows:
- Signage unveiled over nine days across the 113 stations that London Overground serves
- Updates to in-train maps and line diagrams across the London Overground fleet, and an upgrade to the audiovisual passenger information system on the Class 378 trains, which run on the Lioness, Mildmay and Windrush lines
- New Tube maps at all stations
- Online versions of maps live on the TfL website
- Updates to customer information screens and PA announcements at London Overground stations
- Digital channel updates, including the TfL website and TfL Go, will be updated in two phases which will be fully completed by mid-December
- The audiovisual passenger information system on the Class 710 trains will follow by January.
Andy Lord, London’s transport commissioner, said: “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.”
The names of each line have been chosen to “celebrate the city’s diverse culture and history”.
The new names and colours are:
- Lioness (running from Watford Junction to Euston) – yellow
- Mildmay (running from Richmond and Clapham Junction to Stratford) - blue
- Windrush (running from Highbury & Islington to New Cross, Clapham Junction, Crystal Palace and West Croydon) – red
- Weaver (running from Liverpool Street to Enfield Town, Cheshunt and Chingford) – maroon
- Suffragette (running from Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside) – green
- Liberty (running from Romford to Upminster) – grey
TfL says: “Throughout the summer, TfL has engaged with customers through a number of activities all designed to help people become familiar with the new London Overground line name and colours. This includes a new series of TfL’s ‘Mind the Gap’ podcasts that delve into the history of each line name.
New lines: the London Tube map has been evolving since 1923
“These podcasts have been among the most popular TfL has produced, showing customers have taken a genuine interest in what’s behind each of the names.”
TfL also teamed up with walking app Go Jauntly and launched “six fascinating self-guided walks to help celebrate the new London Overground line names”. Each one helps participants to delve into the stories behind each of the line names and visit points of interest while encouraging them to stay active.
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Given the financial state of TfL, spending money on this seems a folly. Most people will still just refer to it as the Overground.
I cannot imagine anyone agrees that the millions spent on the re-naming was a worthwhile investment. Most people will call it ‘The Tube’, which is what TfL is going down …
TfL’s annual budget and revenue is in the region of £9 billion.
The cost of rebranding the Overground has been around £6m.
The antipathy towards the project is based on ignorance, prejudice and hate, expressed here by the usual suspects, whipped up by the rich far-right white tax dodgers who own and run what purport to be newspapers and news websites
Don’t know about antipathy, but I’m sure that most of IC’s sophisticated readers would rather that £6million was spend on safety, cleaner stations or anything that makes our journeys less sh1t. WTF skin colour has to do with it I have no idea. Could you ask your pal to explain?