Users of London’s famous rail network will soon be forced to think of Britain’s racial, feminist, and LGBT history whenever they step on an Overground train.
The six lines that make up the Overground network—suburban rail services, not to be confused with the Underground—are “fondly” known collectively as the “Ginger Line.” But Transport for London (TfL), the local government body responsible for the city’s transport networks, chaired by Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan, last August set about renaming them. Khan promised this scheme in 2021 and said it was aimed at making the network easier to navigate. The new names, unveiled this week, reveal another, far more political motive.
They are:
- The “Lioness” line, named after the England national women’s football team, and most certainly not after the all-female combat unit of the Israel Defence Forces;
- The “Mildmay” line, honouring a London hospital which played a “pivotal role” during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s;
- The “Windrush” line, after the mass migration of mostly Caribbeans following World War Two, in which many of the migrants had fought for Britain;
- The “Weaver” line, to mark the significance of particular areas in the textile trade, in a surprising break from politics; and then back in with
- The “Suffragette” line, after activists who sought “Votes for Women”; and
- The “Liberty” line, allegedly celebrating “a defining feature of London.”
These changes have unsurprisingly been the focus of much derision online, with readers of newspaper reports suggesting other names, such as “Wokeistan” and the “NHS Line.” Historian and broadcaster Rafe Heydel-Mankoo also joked: “Welcome to life in post-revolutionary Britain,” where “the politburo [are] naming or renaming streets (or in this case train lines) to reflect the new ideology, new myths and new heroes.” More seriously, he wrote:
Khan has the audacity to accuse the right of stoking the culture wars whilst using every tool at his disposal to foist a new cultural orthodoxy on the capital. Politicising the daily commute … is ‘next level’ propagandising and brainwashing. There is no escaping the message.
Khan is himself delighted that the name changes, which will cost £6.3 million (€7.3 million), “[reflect] the heritage and diversity of our amazing city.” His announcement prompted writer Esther Krakue to note that “we are governed by morons.”
