Choosing the new London Overground names
Why we did this
London Overground was created in 2007, when TfL took over a series of under-used suburban rail lines and transformed them into a high frequency metro-style service.
Since then, the network has expanded, improved connectivity for millions of people and supported new jobs, homes and economic growth.
The Overground network covers 100 miles of railway, 113 stations and all 9 London zones.
Now there are more than 3 million passengers using the service each week, connecting some of London's most historic and diverse neighbourhoods.
Giving each of the 6 London Overground routes an individual line colour lets us improve the way our customers experience our network. It also gives them their own name and identity.
Benefits
Specific improvements will include:
- Increased usability and understanding of the network
- Greater customer confidence
- Clearer wayfinding
- Clearer service disruption information
It also brings a positive and unique opportunity to engage customers and communities and showcase London's rich diversity.
Reflecting the local communities
London is a centre for diversity, with a huge range of intertwining communities and histories.
Over 300 spoken languages are spoken, there's a very high level of religious pluralism, and at least half of migrant groups that come to Britain settle in the city.
These cultural differences play a significant role in shaping our city.
We celebrate this diversity. Which is why - for the first time and alongside the Mayor - we engaged customers, stakeholders and communities to help influence line names on our network.
Who we engaged with
We heard from a range of audiences to develop unique names for each London Overground route.
The names and colours of each line have been selected after a period of engagement with our staff, customers and communities, and with the help of local historians, academics and transport specialists.
Our approach was to hear from the many different communities that live close to the London Overground and to learn how we can represent them through the line names.
Local and national stakeholders helped us ensure that the community engagement exercises were inclusive and collaborative.
Led by our partner agency DNCO, the engagement generated an initial longlist of names. These were then tested against a series of operational, legal and customer experience scenarios to come to the final 6 names. Find out more in DNCO's project case study.
What happened next
Over the summer of 2024, we worked with communities and groups to socialise and tell the stories associated with the new line names. These activities will finish by the end of 2024, when the changes to the London Overground network and wider TfL customer information are complete.
We'll be updating wayfinding in stations and across other customer information, like TfL Journey Planner and service status information, towards the end of 2024.
London Overground will remain as the umbrella brand, keeping the iconic orange roundel. These changes will not affect London Overground services, and customers will still be able to make the same journeys.