Mark Chapman's Weblog

The Overground Link is here and the Silverlink is no more. Very few would shed a tear at the demise of a much maligned train company with its reputation for dirtiness, inability to control antisocial behaviour and endless delays (not to mention the now infamous Friday strikes). Indeed the train company seemed to instil in its customers at best antipathy, and at worst all-out loathing.

The Overground has promised solutions to many of the Silverlinks failings and there is a real possibility that we may at last have an overground rail system which is as reliable, and as inexpensive as the Underground. The ability to use a pay and go Oyster card on the overground system will allow many, myself included, to use the full rail system for central London. Equally, the promises of more staff, better security and cleaner stations are extremely exciting for anyone who has braved the Silverlink over the past few years. However, I would like to offer some words in defence of the Silverlink.

Quaint
Firstly, the Silverlink was so wonderfully quaint. We still have the little yellow and blue trains now and, given Tfl's far from glowing reputation, we will probably still have them for some time to come. Even after they have been replaced with shining orange carriages, the memory of the little blue and yellow Silverlink trains rattling along will be an enduring image. We should not forget that one of Britain's biggest exports is our quaintness and the products we sell on the back of it. Our main movie exports are schmaltzy romances in pretty, old fashioned locations involving clumsy people, often seduced by young, funky Americans; our main TV exports are infantile reinterpretations of 19th Century melodrama and our literature consists of Ian McEwan (enough said). We can either cringe in embarrassment at our quaintness or embrace it and, whereas I lean to the former, the country generally tends to embrace it. So let's embrace the quaint, including the poor old Silverlink. I once overheard an American woman guffawing about how the Silverlink trains were so cute and how she could seemingly get on the Silverlink without paying as there were never any guards. I, of course, longed desperately for a guard to come along and prove her wrong, particularly as I was in that most common of positions on the Silverlink - crammed into a crowd of other swaying passengers and unable to escape her rampant gob. Of course it never happened. And that links well into my second argument; the wonderful role the Silverlink played in the community.

Public Service
The American girl who I unfairly targeted because of the volume of her voice, was quite right - the Silverlink was often entirely free. I, of course, never took a freebie but many of our poorest citizens could regularly be seen avoiding stations with guards and hopping on for a free ride. The Silverlink provided the cheap (free) transport system that London cries out for and also meant that the poorest amongst us, who also have the highest rates of obesity, could find the added incentive to walk that little bit further to another unmanned station. I was on the Overground today and saw not only one guard but five or six! This added efficiency directly contrasts with memories of the Silverlink (see previous paragraph, 'Quaint').

I couldn't think of a third reason to play devil's advocate. To hell with it; thank God the Silverlink has gone and long live the Overground!