Northern Railways

As the new LO lines feature on the tube map, does it form part of the tube family or is it part of National Rail?

Their timetables appear in the National Rail timetable book, but I read something online that a station in Penge, south east London, had a party to celebrate the tube network arriving there. Also the logo looks very tube-like.

Does anybody know the answer to this?

It is still part of the National Network although not a franchise as such as it is under the overall control of TfL.

It is a National Rail TOC, its operated as a 'concession' to TfL rather than a traditional franchise.

The status of London Overground is contractually complex but similar in nature to that of Merseyrail.

The DfT have allowed a concession to be let in both cases to the local authority, ie Trasnport for London or Merseytravel, who then award an operating contract to a train operator, LOROL/Merseyrail.

In the case of TfL (and maybe for MR too but I wouldnt swear to it) the operating contract is purely a contract to operate trains and stations, there is no revenue risk bourne to the operator, so basically, if the railway carried not a single passenger, then LOROL would still get paid for their management of the service.

Similarly, TfL set fares, timetables and all commercial activity is managed through them.

It's interesting though in the Southeast, no one ever used the term "Overground" to refer to proper trains prior to 2007 and the start of LO, now its common parlance to refer to any Nataion Rail TOC within the travelcard zones!

It goes to show just how good TfL's marketing is, and how a bit of co-ordination can work wonders for all TOCs.

Such a shame that ATOC never bothered maintaining Green's successes with Network South East.