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Okay, let's adopt your suggestion then that we name the line after one of the terminal station, say the Brixton line (instead of Victoria).

"How do I get from Oxford Circus to King's Cross?"
"You need the Brixton line."

our hypothetical traveller could then entirely reasonably say

"But I'm not going to Brixton."

I'm not saying that that I don't think those new to London couldn't get confused, I just don't think your example makes that point.

Personally I don't think naming lines after a terminus is any kind of normal. It happens but there's loads of counter-examples.

The problem if you go for some sort of accurate name, it becomes too cumbersome and then it will probably be contracted into something incomprehensible anyway, viz Baker St & Waterloo becoming Bakerloo.

A name is just a name. It's a way of identifying them, not accurately describing the route. You may as well call them Fred, Bert, George etc or indeed 1, 2, 3, 4.

I think an awful lot of occasional visitors to London just refer to the lines by their colours anyway.

Iain wrote:Okay, let's adopt your suggestion then that we name the line after one of the terminal station, say the Brixton line (instead of Victoria).

"How do I get from Oxford Circus to King's Cross?"
"You need the Brixton line."

our hypothetical traveller could then entirely reasonably say

"But I'm not going to Brixton."

Isn't that what they do on the Paris Metro? Of course in that direction it would be "Walthamstow Central", not "Brixton".

I'm not saying that that I don't think those new to London couldn't get confused, I just don't think your example makes that point.

Personally I don't think naming lines after a terminus is any kind of normal. It happens but there's loads of counter-examples.

I'm not suggesting that Underground lines should be named after their termini. It's more common to name a line after its terminus when it's a branch line off some major route, e.g. the line from Broxbourne to Hertford East is known as the "Hertford East line". (I got that from Branch Line Britain - there are plenty of other examples listed, though by no means all branch lines are named that way.)

[EDIT: Was the now-disused branch of the Piccadilly line to Aldwych ever known as the "Aldwych line"? It would have made sense.]

The main reason why I don't like the name "the Victoria line" is that it isn't the Victoria line, it's a Victoria line. The Circle and District lines are also Victoria lines, as are numerous National Rail lines. What makes that one any more special than the others?

If you're at Brixton, and you want to go to Victoria, what's the best line to get? Is it the Victoria line? No, it's Southeastern straight into the mainline station. How confusing is that?

Well you could name the lines after tube challengers for example the

THE BROWN LINE (the new name for the bakerloo line after the many tube challengers with the surname brown)
THE TUFFNELL PARK LINE (named after one half of the current world record holders profile name and new name for northern)
THE MARSHALL LINE (named after geoff and the new name for district line)
THE JAMES LINE (named after myself JUST AFTER METROPOLITAN EXPRESS SERVICES)
THE RHYS LINE (name after both people called rhys if good service named after jackson if bad service named after benjamin)

I guess names of things/people/places often begin coloquially, and then just stick. When I lived in Preston, a new road across the river Ribble was built in the early eighties. My mother referred to it as 'The New Road'.

She still does.

palkanetoijala31 wrote:Well you could name the lines after tube challengers for example the

THE BROWN LINE (the new name for the bakerloo line after the many tube challengers with the surname brown)
THE TUFFNELL PARK LINE (named after one half of the current world record holders profile name and new name for northern)
THE MARSHALL LINE (named after geoff and the new name for district line)
THE JAMES LINE (named after myself JUST AFTER METROPOLITAN EXPRESS SERVICES)
THE RHYS LINE (name after both people called rhys if good service named after jackson if bad service named after benjamin)

And you know what you're renaming the London Overground...

How about the fact that more stations on the District Line stop within the boundaries of the City ofLondon, than the Hammersmith & City Line does! Considering as well that the District also stops at Hammersmith ...

I'm with Andi. Let's use our surnames to name them after tube challengers!

The Victoria Line gets to be whoever happens to hold the record at the time.

I'd forgotten about this thread! After thinking about it, I've realized why the name "Victoria line" was chosen. Before it was built, Victoria was isolated from the rest of the deep tube network - the only access was via the sub-surface lines. So, they called it the Victoria line because that was the only way of getting there without a long diversion. It must have made sense nearly 50 years ago - less sense now, but I suppose people have got used to it