Count the lines
How many metro routes does London have now, then?
It’s in the nature of a) running a newsletter as diverse as this, and b) being a person as awkward as me, that every time I release an old post from behind the paywall, I feel the need to include a disclaimer. “It’s not all like this!” I want to say, to those of you who signed up because of the history/politics/other threads. “But sometimes it is!” I want to add, to reassure those who actually are here for the transport nerd stuff. Well: both of those things are true, and the only thing providing unity to this newsletter is my weird brain. Not interested in this post? That’s fine, there’ll be another along in a minute.1
There is actually a direct sequel to this one, which I’ll release in due time: this post asks how many metro lines London has; the follow up asks the same about the rest of the UK, and comparing the two numbers tell a story about this country as a whole. That’s for the future though, and I may try to do something else first, to assuage the subset of the audience that isn’t fussed about trains.
Right, that’s quite enough disclaimers. Let’s do this.
How many lines does London have now?
In May the Elizabeth line, the artist formerly known as Crossrail, finally opened its doors to the public, after a three year delay, a 14 year construction process and, from some perspectives, a 48 year wait. For the last six months, though, it hasn’t been one line, but three: two existing suburban services, running into Paddington and Liverpool Street respectively; plus the new tunnel, from Paddington to Abbey Wood.
From tomorrow, though, the latter at long last connects with the former2, and it definitely will be one line. It will also, to my mind, be a tube line. Transport for London currently denies this – a TfL spokesperson once told me that the reason it was described on in-carriage line diagrams as “Elizabeth line”, rather than simply “Elizabeth”, is because it’s “an addition to the transport network, as opposed to a Tube line”. On the other hand, though, that makes no sense as an explanation, and anyway, it’s an underground line running through tunnels bored into the ground, with its own name and colour, so who do they think they’re fooling? The Elizabeth line will effectively, if not officially, count as London’s 12th tube line.
The thing is, though, I’ve never been quite convinced that the tube really only contains 11 (last year)/12 (this one) lines. The Northern line’s two branches through central London, perfectly suited to confusing tourists as they were, have always really felt like two lines that happen to share some suburban branches. Now that it’s generally only the Bank branch that runs to Morden, while most Charing Cross branch trains run to Battersea Power Station station, that feels more true than ever: one day, if TfL ever manages to rebuild Camden Town, it might split entirely.
Then there’s the District line, which has multiple branches in West London, plus two routes on offer to trains heading east from Earl’s Court: the main line to Upminster, plus a branch to Edgware Road. Trains on the latter run almost exclusively to Wimbledon – they used to literally use different trains, too – so I’ve been convinced since some time in the 1990s that this should be broken off as a separate line called the Wimbleware, partly because having more lines is cool, partly because Wimbleware is such a funny word. So: that’d bring us to 14.
(Actually, the District line is arguably three lines – the third is the Kensington Olympia shuttle service – but that doesn’t run a lot of the time, so I don’t think it really counts as a line in its own right, it’s much more akin to the Central line’s Hainult-Woodford shuttle.)
A few paragraphs back, though, I said that the Elizabeth line would be the tube’s 12th. Until a few years ago, though, the tube really did have 12 lines: the one that’s gone missing in action is the East London line from Shoreditch to New Cross/New Cross Gate. That’s still there now, of course – it’s actually been extended, and is busier and more useful than ever – but we don’t count it as a tube line because it’s part of the Overground instead.
That consists of at least six lines (the extended East London, Stratford to Richmond/Clapham Junction, Gospel Oak to Barking, Euston to Watford, the Lea Valley lines, and the Romford to Upminster). Actually, I’d argue that it’s seven – the Lea Valley trains to Chingford have as many trains combined as, but a different stopping pattern to, the ones to Enfield/Cheshunt – but either way, TfL has occasionally considered giving them different colours and line identities. That, by my reckoning, would take us to 21.
But then there’s the DLR, too. Like the Overground, that generally all gets smooshed together into a single colour (mint green, rather than orange). On its own maps, though, it’s clearly marked as three different routes (to Lewisham, Woolwich or Beckton). So that’s 24.
The DLR, deconstructed. Image: TfL.
Then there are the trams! Oh god I almost forgot the trams. That’s shown on its map with three different colours, too (Elmer’s End, Beckenham Junction, New Addington). I’m not sure that’s necessary – they feel more like different branches of a single thing, to me – but hey, we’re here now, so: 27.
Look, you try finding a version of this map that’ll fit into a newsletter. Image: TfL.
Hang on, there’s a cable car, too! Okay, it’s not a train, and the whole thing’s silly and the sponsorship embarrassing. But other cities like Medellin use cable cars as part of their transport networks, so why not? That’s 28.
I think that’s it. I’m not counting buses, there are literally hundreds of those, and non-fixed routes feel like something different. And National Rail lines are, at present, none of TfL’s concern, even if, in a better world, they would be.
Anyway: Transport for London has somewhere between 11 and 14 tube lines, and somewhere between four and 14 other lines.
Why do these not all get colours and line identities of their own, like (most of) the tube lines do? Ostensibly, because the human eye can’t distinguish between that many colours at a glance: the limit on most maps seems to be in the mid teens somewhere. On the other hand, though, surely Londoners would like more lines than Paris or New York, just to show off? Whatever happened to TfL’s metropolitan pride?
Next time (or, possibly, the time after that): how many metro lines does the rest of the country have, then?
Actually, if you’re desperate to read it now, paying subscribers can already find it here. Which brings me to…
Self-promotion corner
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