Forum Topic

Naming the local Overground Line

Any thoughts on what our local Overground line should be called? The best I could come up with was the Westway line as it parallels the road but I have to accept that is pretty weak.

Mark Evans ● 624d38 Comments

Maybe as a pointer towards renaming the lines, have a look at the mess that the virtue signallers in Birmingham made of street names. Completely predictable as are the chances of any names mentioned in this discussion entering into the Overground vocabulary.

Peter King ● 612d

After watching the students on University Challenge last night fail to identify the county of Middlesex on a map (one said Rutland, the other Hertfordshire !), I thought how about calling it the Middlesex Line ?

Richard Greenhough ● 613d

So are you saying it should be the North By North West Line?

Francis Rowe ● 613d

The line from Clapham Jct to Willesden Jct is the West London Line

Jon Jones ● 617d

I still habitually refer to it as the North London Line but this proposal seems to incorporate the Clapham Junction branch so the name might be mis-leading. Also any name that attempted to be descriptive e.g. with a point of the compass or a word like orbital or circle. The Olympic line seems like the best suggestion so far.


Alison Howard ● 618d

Some good suggestions here most better than my original suggestion of the Westway line.However, for me Gordon Birkett's suggestion of the Olympic line should end all argument. It provides a link with all sections of the line include the two western branches. Obviously Stratford is relevant but also Richmond hosted an atheletes' village for the 1948 games. In addition the line runs past the site of the 1908 Olympics stadium at White City. I'm not sure Kensington Olympia actually has any Olympic Games links but it would not be out of place on an Olympic Line. There are probably many more historic links between stations and the three London Olympic games that historians would be able to dig up.

Mark Evans ● 622d

"But not to be confused with the proposed West London Orbital from Hounslow to Brent Cross !"Good point!  I should have remembered that, having done some consultancy work for Hounslow at an earlier stage of that proposal in 2007.

Richard Jennings ● 622d

Should have add 😉

Janice Evans ● 622d

Silverlink North

Janice Evans ● 622d

But not to be confused with the proposed West London Orbital from Hounslow to Brent Cross !https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/west-london-orbital-railway-likely-to-get-approval-61981/

Tim Henderson ● 622d

I remember explaining to a tourist at Gunnersbury Station that the Silverlink trains were not the silver coloured ones - they were District line - and the Silverlink trains at that time were purple.  I would rather have a name that included some sort of destination, but Stratford has too many lines going through it to be good identification,

Vivienne Cox ● 622d

I forgot to include the Camilla Line in my list of ‘royals’

Peter Evans ● 622d

Ive always called it the North London Link

Stephen Gould ● 623d

Thameslink 3000 sounds really modern.I did see the "Petshop Line" on Twitter - West End Girls to East End Boys.

Ed Saper ● 623d

North London Line has a nice ring to it.

Mike Paterson ● 623d

The North London LineIf it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Jon Jones ● 623d

Richard Jennings is onto something as, until 1908, there was a route that pretty well followed the recently re-established Overground route round London and it was called ‘The Outer Circle Line’.  Job done!

Peter Evans ● 623d

How about the Lasso line to indicate that it terminates at the home of AFC Richmond?

Felicity Caborn ● 623d

"Silverlink was nice"The name might be nice but the company's reputation was poor.  A London Assembly report described the service as "shabby, unreliable, unsafe and overcrowded". TfL Overground took over from Silverlink in 2007. I don't think perpetuating the name would be popular.Mark Evans suggested the Westway line "as it parallels the road", but the line that parallels the road is the Underground Hammersmith and City line between Latimer Road and Paddington.The former North London Line and the former East London Line, together with their branches to Clapham Junction, form an Overground Orbital line around Central London.  Perhaps the lines should be called the North Orbital and the East Orbital (or more accurately but with longer names, the North-West Orbital and the South-East Orbital).

Richard Jennings ● 623d

The Ulez Line has a certain ring to it.....

Richard Greenhough ● 623d

All in vain I'd suggest as the little mayoral donut has probably made up his mind via a lot of virtue signalling

Peter King ● 623d

Susan Kelly is quite right, from the early 1970s the line was known as the North London line.No reason to change it.

Denis I. Fox ● 623d

Well that's one corner! Scroll around.The map you can't see shows the old network along with a photo taken from the Minder TV programme when Arthur ran a business from three red phone boxes.

Adrian Irving ● 623d

This map is displayed at South Acton Station

Adrian Irving ● 623d

This map is displayed at South Acton Station

Adrian Irving ● 623d

Or Cr-acton line

Julian Pavey ● 623d

Cr-ackton line

Julian Pavey ● 623d

Can’t go wrong with North London Line, West London Line, East London Line, South London Line, Watford Line, Chingford Line and Barking Line. Or we could go for Mandela Line, Einstein Line, Pankhurst Line, Freud Line, or similar, more virtuous but less informative. Or following the Victoria and Elizabeth Lines, there’s the Charles, William, Andrew, Harry, Kate, Meghan and Fergie Lines.  Or after Bakerloo, the Stratmond or Richford Line, and indeed the Goblin Line.

Peter Evans ● 623d

Yes, Silverlink was nice, although that came after the North London Line.

Susan Kelly ● 623d

How about "The Old Railway Line"? That should be popular.

Bruce Hammal ● 623d

Like that Elle.

Janice Evans ● 623d

I remember it being called the Silverlink - always liked that name!

Elle Jones ● 623d

I can remember the station and platform being a very bad stateBut the odd goods train did pull in there but I never saw one.I also remember the level Crossing on bath road, it remained there for a long time after the station closed.To my amusement, when passing the level crossing on my way to a job, I notice builders had started laying the foundations for a building across the width of the train line, later on it was to become a house.I thought to my shelve, I hope they have remove the lines from behind the house. Because someone could of sent something down the line and find a house in its way.

Bernard Allen ● 623d

Does anyone remember trains running down the branch behind Abinger Rd to the "Hammersmith & Chiswick" station on the High Road?http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/h/hammersmith_and_chicwick/index.shtml

Will Watson ● 623d

It seems to cover Stratford (Olympics 2012) to Richmond and the branch to Clapham Junction (via Olympia) as I understand  it - The Olympic Line or Olympia Line?

Gordon Birkett ● 623d

The railway line is not ALL overground at all. There's a lenghthy tunnel in the Hampstead Heath area (the stop for the Royal Free Hospital). Whilst it certainly was once known by many of us as the Broad Street Line...that terminus no longer exists.THE STRATFORD LINE sounds good and would my suggestion. Agreed 'overground' is too vague for words.

Jim Lawes ● 623d

Still think of this as the Broad Street line.

David Marshall ● 623d

It was called the North London Line when I moved to London in 1974 and I still call it that, so that gets my vote.

Susan Kelly ● 624d