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The London Overground is one of the biggest transit success stories in the past decades. But what is it, and does your city need its own?
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Ever wondered why your city’s transit just doesn’t seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!
Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.
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I loved Geoffe Marshall and Vicki Pipe's Overground races. They were a great team and the races were fun.
7:27 “sometimes as simple as just widderally walking across the street” 😂
A huge benefit of the overground compared to the tube for me is being able to avoid the higher fares by avoiding central london
A big part of the success is the integrated payment system – Oyster card or tap to pay, just like the tube and busses. Removes a huge barrier to usage.
Would love to see a video on South African cities and their suburban Metrorail system. I used it in Cape Town
Something I think some people take for granted in Victoria is that we have (almost) unified ticketing across most of the state and each type of network (trams, suburban rail, regional rail) only has one operator, and all of it is under the one brand for timetabling. Even if we complain about that unified ticket constantly for it's very silly implementation.
Thanks!
Good work as always!
There are a few transit systems about which I'd like to see explainer videos:
* Buenos Aires Subte – because it's the oldest metro system in the Southern Hemisphere, and one of the oldest in the Americas
* Bilbao's various conveyances – it's kind of a crazy hodgepodge of different systems, but overall seems like a very good system for a medium-sized city
* The Moscow and/or St. Petersburg and/or Kyiv Metro – well … there's the famously ornate station architecture, the insane depth of many of the lines, and then there's this thing called the "horizontal lift" which they have in St. Petersburg – Wikipedia says it's a variant of platform screen doors, but doesn't really show or explain how it works.
Thanks for everything!
This is what NY's IBX should be instead of light rail
So, basically it's paris RER but in London 😀
I feel like the overground has more capacity than Crossrail due to the fact it has no transverse seating and that it only has two doors, but keep in mind that the central section of Crossrail is more like a metro.
London Overground directly 'inspired' a project in Milan.The razionalization of the rail ring, currently underused for urban rail transit.
The project is known with its unofficial name of Circle Line (yes, in English) and its purpose is to create a frequent urban service on this massive rail infrastructure. I also made a video on my youtube channel a while ago.
Even if it's not clear how the service will be designed in detail, it will be part of S lines network. The goal is to have a frequency of 10 min. or less, with a dedicated line which will run all the ring lenghth in combination with different routes S lines.
To make it more useful and attractive they will build new stations all along the ring and new connections with existing urban transit network. They already built one, which entered service few months ago. Tibaldi station on the Southern branch of the ring which is currently served by S9, the only S line that runs on the ring. Just part of it.
Unfortunately we do not know the timing to make this project become reality because everything is up to the infrastructure owner, which is RFI (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana), infamously known for giving few infos, having very long implementation times and very few interest in local transport.
Thameslink and Great Northern should be the first TFL takeovers for all the talk of a 2nd crossrail running north to south and back again these lines already do that plus easy interchanges from the Elizabeth line to Thameslink from Farringdon and Moorgate for Great Northern ( Same stop as Liverpool Street)
I'm convinced that it was named as a result of the Wombles.
The change of the SLL to overground lost the Victoria-London Bridge service, which was useful and if had been promoted at 4tph would have been better used. As the Wandsworth Road-Clapham High Street-Denmark Hill section is quite busy now certainly worth bringing back stopping Victoria-Battersea Park (For Battersea Power Station) – Peckham (to somewhere) services at least 2 tph
The Overground lines will get new names
Having visited Japan and dealt with the mess of railway companies operating around each city, I can confidently say, while the Japanese do put unrivaled punctuality and reliability on display, they could really learn something from western projects like the Overground and systems like Hamburg's HVV. Taking public transport should be more straightforward than driving, and that includes planning, route finding, ticketing, seat reservations, connections, etc.
Seeing firsthand the improvements to both the Goblin and Northern London line in my opinion the Overground has been the most successful additions to London’s public transport infrastructure in recent years. More so than the Lizzy line.
I first used the both lines in 2006 a year before TFL took over. And they were both neglected in so many ways. Since the much needed investment and attention brought from its branding. It has transformed them into well utilised and essential services and opened up parts of London not many people not aware of.
Can you do the Naples Metro?
I've always wondered whether or not there were free in-system transfers between the London Overground and the London Underground at some stations.
I get the upgrade (NICE) but I I still don't get the labelling. Just call everything Metro London, who cares if it is above or below ground! If you add the Elizabeth line it's all a bit chaotic… I prefer more European Style branding: Métro, RER, Transilien in Paris for example or U-bahn, S-Bahn in German speaking countries…
Why Brits are unable to say SOUND "R"?)
There's not going to be any expansion of the Overground any time soon, because TfL are out of money. Commuting revenue is down since Covid, and central government (DfT) are cutting their funding
Bro please make video on Moscow metro
happy birthday maya
It's surprisingly exhilarating hearing somebody from overseas mentioning Enfield Town and the Lea Valley lines. Mind you, as much as I enjoy Enfield's trains, I hate its bus routes. Frequently stuck in traffic and at the mercy of industrial vehicles entering from the M25. Plus there's the A1010 Great Cambridge road blasting its noisy way through the centre of the borough…
At least they've started making some effort with cycling initiatives. I just wish they'd do some East/West rail links. Going North and South is fine, but it can take more time to go from Waltham Cross to Enfield Town (only buses, around 29 to 35 minute) than it does going from Waltham Cross to Liverpool Street (via train, 32 minutes). Completely baffling.
I kinda want trams like they have in Plzeň. Their integration is superb!
Maybe TfL could retain TfL Rail and to operate metro services in Southwest London, South London and Southeast London and North London. And of course to take over South Western Railway, Southern, Southeastern, Great Northern and Thameslink services.
And perhaps London Overground to operate the shuttle service between West Ealing-Greenford using Class 230 Battery/Hybrid trains. With the Elizabeth Line now completed and Crossrail 2 in planning to be built and to be built in early 2030s. And maybe Alstom to manufacture few more extra Class 710s is that’s ever needed.
6:44 – Only within the last hour I departed northwards from the Seven Sisters platform you were standing on here in a British Rail class 710 train.
Being local to the NLL (north London line) I was very pleased to see this video, and a brilliant explanation of it too! One of the things I find most fascinating is the presence of heavy freight trains on the network connecting from one main line to another via the orbital routes. A wonderful video!
Often overlooked but the overground can be really cheap to use. To get from where I live in South West London I can get to north London for a little over£2 off peak. Would be closer to£10 to take national rail and underground
Great video. A driver here for 14 years on LO and its predecessors. Overground in some ways is victim of its own success. Every time it expands and the service increases, new things added, more people come. During COVID for a example only one operator UK wide saw a passenger recovery as strong as on LO. New developments pop up everywhere along its routes and that's testament to its success as a lot of customers see it as a valuable and pleasant option compared to other TOCs. The lines they took over were woeful. (Former Silverlink/Greater Anglia) was a bit of a free for all with limited information, poor frequency, old trains, unmanned stations with no assistance, antisocial behaviour, with most stations looking like they were abandoned in the early 90s. (I kid not some hadn't seen a lick of paint since then) Now its a very different story. Its now a state of the art, safe, reliable railway that truly has transformed the areas it serves. It is still technically split internally into three distinct areas known as North (NLL/GOB/DC) East (West Anglia) and South (ELL) with each area having its own pool of staff. The changes have been huge over the years and it is still in my opinion one of the best Train Operating companies in the UK from a passenger and staff perspective. Expansion my be on the cards soon lots of new ideas have been pushed about as once again it has outgrown its success. Watch this space.
1:35 re "semi-acceptable service". When I took the North London Line in the mid 1980s, not only wss it diesel, not only was it British Rail and so your TravelCard wasn't valid, but the carriages consisted of ancient dog boxes, each compartment with its own door to the platform and no corridor between them. Really bad if you got in and found one of your fellow travellers had bad personal hygiene – not uncommon in London in those days. No escape till the next stop!
Only after watching this video did I realise how similar the Overground is to São Paulo's CPTM network (although maybe that one has further reach into the outer metropolitan area)
I have lived in London for over 60 years . only found about these lines fairly recently , I mainly use the Nw london section , either to Hamstead . Shepherds Bush and Richmond . it,s much nicer to use than the Underground and much better and quicker in some cases