Khan renames rail lines in tribute to feminism
Mayor’s £6.3m rebranding of London Overground network condemned as a virtue-signalling ‘gimmick’
SADIQ KHAN has been accused of “virtue signalling nonsense” after renaming London Overground lines in a tribute to multiculturalism and feminism.
The Mayor of London said the overground network’s 103 miles of interconnecting tracks, which are marked in orange on transport maps, would be split into six new identities. The names for the lines are Lioness, Windrush, Suffragette, Weaver, Liberty and Mildmay – the last one being a tribute to a specialist HIV hospital in Shoreditch.
As well as honouring the England women’s football team, the Caribbean passenger ship Empire Windrush and the 1920s movement for women’s suffrage, the new lines also commemorate lesser-known aspects of the capital’s history.
The Weaver Line is named for “areas of London known for the textile trade”, wending through Liverpool Street, Spitalfields and Bethnal Green, and the Liberty Line celebrates the east London borough of Havering, which “historically had more self-governance through being a royal liberty”, according to Transport for London. New colours will be used as the Overground is split into separately named networks. Each will have a white line through the middle of them to distinguish them from Tube lines, which use solid colours.
The rebranding exercise, estimated to cost £6.3 million, is supposed to make the overground network easier to navigate, but critics say Mr Khan is engaging in a “pointless gimmick”.
Mr Khan described the renaming of the lines as “a hugely exciting moment”.
“In re-imagining London’s Tube map, we are also honouring and celebrating different parts of London’s unique local history and culture,” he said.
Critics, however, called the move “virtue signalling”, “patronising” and a “pointless gimmick”. Susan Hall, the Conservative candidate for London’s mayoral elections, said the rebrand was “virtue signalling nonsense” and added: “The only surprise f rom t oday’s announcement is that he hasn’t named one of them the Sadiq Line.”
Lord Frost said: “The London tradition is that public transport lines are given a name either with a royal connection or one related to the line’s geography. Giving them political names is, whether one agrees with the politics or not, a break with that tradition. It’s part of the general forced politicisation of so many aspects of our daily life.
“Of course one would expect nothing better from Sadiq Khan and his appallingly poor management of TFL and of London.” The Conservative MP Mark Francois, a former minister who was born in Islington, echoed Mrs Hall’s Sadiq Line suggestion and added: “This is classic Sadiq; yet another pointless gimmick to make up for his floundering mayoralty.”
Keith Prince, the City Hall Conservatives’ transport spokesman, said the Mayor had wasted an opportunity to generate money. “Sadiq Khan and TFL could have earned tens of millions of pounds by offering naming rights to Overground train lines,” he said.
Meanwhile, Robert Colvile, director of the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, described the exercise as “simultaneously twee, patronising and just weird”. Prof Jeremy Black, of the University of Exeter, accused Mr Khan of politicising the railways.
Transport for London said it would make it easier for customers to navigate the network “while also celebrating the city’s diverse culture and history”.
John Bull, editor of transport website London Reconnections, said the change was “overdue”. He said: “One of the benefits the Overground has brought is the ability to drive traffic that isn’t local to interesting places in Zone 2, Zone 3 and beyond. But if it’s not a familiar journey, you can’t just say: ‘I’m going to get on the orange line’. You have to know how they interconnect.”