Why We'll Be Calling Crossrail The Lizard Line

M@
By M@ Last edited 70 months ago

Last Updated 21 December 2018

Why We'll Be Calling Crossrail The Lizard Line

Transport for London has released a diagram showing how the new Crossrail line will look on tube maps.

It's lovely.

To our eyes, it looks just like a lizard.

A lizard, yesterday. Image via Shutterstock.

No, it really does.

Look...

The new train line not only matches the contours of this gecko, it also suggests a future branch line down through Richmond and on to Surrey.

A further extension could be envisaged shooting out westwards from Maidenhead, in imitation of the lizard's outstretched tongue. (Do geckos have long tongues or is that just chameleons? It's clearly something that TfL will need to factor in to any scoping studies.)

The name 'the Lizard line' makes sense for other reasons. TfL is forever berating us for calling this thing 'Crossrail', when we should be saying 'the Elizabeth line'. Nobody's going to call it that. It's too long, too clunky and too deferential. The Elizabeth line is bound to get shortened to 'the Liz line', whence it is only a short, reptilian leap to rebrand as the Lizard line. Plus, it wouldn't be the first time that Elizabeth has been reimagined this way.

So, come on London, let's call this railway the Lizard line.