It could be a scene straight from the vaults of cult political comedy The Thick Of It.
A group of branding execs paid £100,000 of public cash to sit on London Overground trains for 13 days until inspiration struck for a name for the tangled web of connected lines – that until now, had done perfectly well without one.
But rather than being the stuff of parody it has emerged that that is exactly what happened to achieve Sadiq Khan‘s £6.3million rebrand at a time when Transport for London (TfL) has a £15billion hole in its finances.
The capital’s Labour mayor gave his favoured branding firm DNCO five months and £115,275 of taxpayers’ money to come up with the names Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty.
The decision to shun non-partisan, geographical and royal titles such as Northern, Circle and Elizabeth has led to Mr Khan being accused of foisting ‘shamelessly political’ names on Londoners as he tries to win a third term at City Hall. Mr Khan’s Tory mayoral rival Susan Hall even admitted she was surprised he had not tried to name one after himself.
London-based DNCO has revealed how it came up with the shortlist in a video revealing how they brain stormed with poets and travelled on the London Overground for almost a fortnight to watch passengers as well as speak to commuters and staff.
And in one extraordinary clip on its website, there is footage of a ‘co-creation workshop’ involving handpicked writers, poets and performers asked to come up with words they identified with London Overground lines and the areas they serve to help identify names.
Handwritten notes in the video show a rather gloomy view from one participant, who listed the words: ‘Individualism, separation, boy grabbed, angry man, detachment, head down, don’t look’ in sessions where they also held discussions on ‘decolonisation’ and ‘queer histories’.
A longer list related to each line was also written on the wall on a roll of paper.
The contributors decided on words including ‘diverse and transient’, ‘hipster man’, ‘non-corporate’, ‘flakey’, ‘well to do’ and ‘late’.
DNCO has said that over five months it ‘explored themes of decolonisation, queer histories, intersectionality and young London’s perspectives’ to decide the names of the lines that has split so many in the capital.
Critics have branded the results ‘patronising’ and ‘insultingly twee’.
Explaining the process of choosing the names, brand strategist Brenda Sjahrial, who worked for DNCO on the London Overground project, said: ‘Firstly we went out to ride the entire network. I think we spent about 13 days.
‘We had to go far and wide to help us uncover untold stories and narratives.
‘We also wanted to work with people who love words so invited poets, writers, performers to help us explore and generate naming ideas’.
Despite the mix of words, DNCO claimed that these sessions ‘formed a vital framework that helps answer: what does a good name look like?’
‘We explored themes of decolonisation, queer histories, intersectionality and young London’s perspectives. The message was clear: Londoners wanted narratives that are specific to movements and moments, and reflective of everyday people. In this historic moment, this is a chance to celebrate and capture what London is proud of’, DNCO said.
From those meetings, talks with commuters and other stakeholders, but no major public consultation, the Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty lines were born – but many have written off the rebrand as ‘virtue signalling nonsense’.
Transport for London paid £115,275 to DNCO for five months of ‘naming research’, MailOnline revealed yesterday.
The majority of the £6.3million rebrand cost will go towards updating signs and maps across the transport network and public address announcements will be re-recorded from the autumn.
Mr Khan has stood by his decision in the face of criticism and claims it was a ‘shamelessly political’ policy in an election year, hailing the new names as reflecting ‘London’s rich culture and history’.
Sadiq Khan and Transport for London chose DNCO for the project after they named the road that the new City Hall in the Royal Docks, Newham.
The ended up with Kamal Chunchie Way – in honour of the late Sri Lankan minister and anti-racism campaigner – after ‘Londoners’ Square’ and ‘Ship Horns Yard’ were rejected.
DNCO bills itself as ‘an agency that we are using that specialises in creative community engagement’.
Transport for London, the body run by Mayor Khan and responsible for the network also including the Tube, says it has given the six routes distinct identities to make it easier for passengers.
The Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty lines were revealed by the Mayor of London.
But Mr Khan’s Tory mayoral rival Susan Hall said: ‘The only surprise from today’s announcement is that he hasn’t named one of them the Sadiq line.’ Conservatives MPs said Mr Khan was ‘just putting a new lick of paint over a creaking transport system’.
Others highlighted the cost, which comes six months after TfL was saved from bankruptcy by the Government with a £3.6billion bailout.
TfL’s crime report revealed there had been a 50 per cent rise in violence and aggression against Tube staff, up from 431 incidents between April and September in 2022 to 647 incidents in the same period in 2023.
The announcement also comes four days before a major Overground strike will hit services from next Monday. Mr Khan, who is standing for re-election as the capital’s mayor on May 2, caused outrage last year with his Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) expansion – and is now battling for a third term with his recent decisions to freeze travel fares and make Fridays off-peak from next month. Overground lines have all been identified as orange since the network was created in 2007.
Each route will be represented on Tube maps as parallel lines in different colours. Ms Hall told the Mail: ‘A thousand people have been killed under his mayoralty, and yet Sadiq Khan is only interested in this virtue signalling nonsense.
‘The only surprise from [the] announcement is that he hasn’t named one of them the Sadiq line.’
Paul Scully, a former minister of London, said: ‘Londoners just want a mayor who can get them from A to B on time, at reasonable cost and in a degree of comfort, not just spraying a word cloud of virtue signalling at a cost of £6million of taxpayers’ money. He’s just putting a new lick of paint over a creaking transport system rather than doing the job Londoners expect.’
And Bob Blackman, the Conservative MP for Harrow East, said: ‘Another woke idea from a mayor who becomes more ridiculous every day.’
But Mr Khan welcomed the naming of lines, adding: ‘We are honouring and celebrating different parts of London’s unique local history and culture.’
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Martin Robinson
