Jonn Elledge’s article on the allegedly rightwing-led hubbub over the renaming of London Overground train lines (Tickets, please, angry Tories! You may not like the name, but you’re welcome on London’s Windrush line, 15 February) must have caused a surge of empathy, concern and indignation among rail commuters in the north who are awaiting services from HS2 (never) and TransPennine (irregular).
There Windrush, here Doldrums. There Mildmay, here Dismay. Nice to have the luxury of rail services worth bickering over. Susan Hall, the Conservatives’ mayoral candidate in London, accuses Sadiq Khan of virtue signalling (London Overground: new names and colours for six lines revealed, 15 February). I’d settle for real signalling on a railway system that functions.
Dr Jonathan J Ross
Sheffield
• Transport for London has missed the chance to recognise the present government’s dubious achievements in naming London Overground lines. Here are some alternative suggestions for lines:
* The Truss line: goes directly to a new pork market … somewhere.
* The Brexit line: costs a fortune for a ride; destination unknown but likely to be further away from where you wanted to be than when you started and paid the fare.
* The Rishi line: scheduled to stop at five stations. May stop at five different ones, but then conveniently rename them on arrival.
* The Rwanda line: don’t be daft, of course it doesn’t actually go there. It’s a local service, but the branding cost a mint.
* The UK Economy line: one-way only, downhill.
* The NHS line: long queues to board. Staffed by an insufficient number of underpaid people.
Andrew Ray
Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire
• In an otherwise engaging article, I found it strange that Jonn Elledge singled out the Lioness line for lighthearted criticism. For me, this is the best name of them all. The event it celebrates is not at all “fleeting” or “faintly cringe”. Despite not being a football fan, I found the choice of this name inspiring. Largely thanks to the Lionesses, generations of girls will no longer grow up learning that their role in life is to stand on the touchline clapping for their brothers or spend break times standing round the edges of a “boys only” football pitch. Instead, girls and women can ride on a line whose name reminds them that they don’t just have to play a supporting role in life, that they too can be centre stage.
Prof Jeannette Littlemore
Birmingham
• I’m pleased that the names include the Windrush line, which runs through a number of Caribbean communities. Pity that it has to rattle through the heart of Brixton without stopping owing to the failure to build high-level platforms there when the line was upgraded some years ago.
Graham Larkbey
London
• “Conservatives in London said Khan had wasted the opportunity to sell naming rights” – if ever a comment summed up the Conservatives’ devotion to knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing, this is it.
Chris Roome
Staplehurst, Kent
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