London’s public transportation system might quickly change into a bit simpler to navigate.
The practice traces on London’s Overground, a rail system that largely serves folks in neighborhoods outdoors of central London past the attain of town’s Underground system, will likely be renamed.
The traces on the map will even obtain new colours, changing a system that’s at the moment marked fully with orange traces on maps.
Whereas the Overground is technically a distinct system than the Underground, popularly often called the tube, the identical cost technique applies to each, and a number of stations join the 2 programs.
The brand new names are: Lioness, named after the English girls’s soccer group; Mildmay, honoring a small East London hospital with a pivotal function caring for sufferers throughout the AIDS disaster; Windrush, after the ship that introduced among the first migrants from the Caribbean to Britain; Weaver, which travels by an space as soon as identified for its textile commerce; Suffragette, after the motion that fought for ladies’s proper to vote; and Liberty, which references the historic independence of the folks of the Havering borough.
The brand new names and maps will go into impact later this yr. The challenge will price about 6.3 million kilos (roughly $7.9 million), in keeping with Transport for London, town’s transportation authority.
Nearly all of that price will likely be used to replace indicators and references inside the system, together with redesigned maps within the 113 Overground stations and in Underground stations the place the maps are displayed, in addition to digital screens and re-recordings of the general public deal with programs.
The names and colours ought to make it simpler for riders to navigate the system, Transport for London, town’s transportation authority, stated in a press release.
Susan Corridor, the Conservative mayoral candidate in London’s Could election, voiced a standard right-wing sentiment on the rebrand, telling The Every day Mail it was “advantage signaling nonsense.” However some riders stated they welcomed the change. Lucia Florin, who makes use of the Overground to commute, stated the brand new names would give the system extra character.
“I simply don’t suppose folks actually know the names of the Overground,” she stated on Thursday on the London Fields station in East London.
At the moment, the completely different traces are referred to by their locations, in keeping with the Transport for London’s fashion information: “All directional references needs to be known as the vacation spot they’re touring in direction of.”
To get to work, Ms. Florin rides what is going to quickly be referred to as the Weaver line, which is one thing that resonates together with her every day commute. “I work in vogue,” Ms. Florin stated. “Perhaps I’ll keep in mind that.”
A whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals use the Overground every day. Arriva Rail, the corporate that manages the system on behalf of Transport for London, runs virtually 1,600 companies on 111 trains daily, carrying greater than 520,000 passengers, in keeping with its web site.
The system pales as compared with London’s tube system, which transports as much as 5 million passengers a day, in keeping with Transport for London.
The London Overground opened in 2007 “to supply higher connections between areas outdoors of central London” when Transport for London took over 4 suburban railway traces. Since then, the community has grown, leading to a system “represented by a spaghetti of orange on the Tube maps,” in keeping with the transit company.
“It’s overdue,” stated Oliver Carden, standing outdoors the London Fields station on Thursday. He stated that for Londoners, the present system might make sense, however that guests would profit from the brand new names and colours.
He stated he additionally appreciated that the names mirrored town’s historical past and heritage, quite than institution figures: “Making it replicate extra cultural heritage is method higher than simply naming it after the Queen,” Mr. Carden stated.
Not all morning commuters expressed help.
On the Dalston Kingsland station in North London, Louis Fulford-Smith, 27, stated he thought that the brand new names sounded “woke.” The worst of the brand new names, he stated, was Liberty, including that it felt “very American” and was “scraping the underside of the barrel.”
Flora Fletcher, 20, who was ready for a practice on the Highbury and Islington station in North London, stated that the brand new names weren’t going to influence her journeys. However she thought the cash being spent to rename the Overground traces may have been spent “on anything,” together with making the trains extra dependable and growing the wages of transit employees, a few of whom are scheduled to go on strike subsequent week.
“I don’t actually thoughts what they’re referred to as,” she stated.
