The Lioness Line

Published 28 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

The Lioness line is the London Overground service from Euston to Watford Junction: nineteen stations, a train every fifteen minutes seven days a week, and about fifty minutes end to end. It has one rule that exists nowhere else on the network, and it works in a visitor's favour: on this line the peak fare depends on which direction you are travelling, so the trip out to Watford in the morning rush costs £7.20 rather than £11.10.

The name dates from November 2024, when the Overground's tangle of orange routes became six named lines. It honours the England women's football team; our page on the six line names explains who chose them and why. This page is about the railway: where it goes, what the trains and the interchanges are like, what happens at weekends, which stations you can get into with a wheelchair or a heavy suitcase, and the one day out that makes the line worth knowing about.

If you have not used the Overground before, it is a TfL railway with Tube fares, Tube caps and the same contactless touch-in at the gateline. Our guide to the DLR and the Overground covers how the network as a whole fits together.

Nineteen stations, and ten of them are Bakerloo stations too

Northbound out of Euston the order is South Hampstead, Kilburn High Road, Queen's Park, Kensal Green, Willesden Junction, Harlesden, Stonebridge Park, Wembley Central, North Wembley, South Kenton, Kenton, Harrow & Wealdstone, Headstone Lane, Hatch End, Carpenders Park, Bushey, Watford High Street and Watford Junction. There are no branches and nothing to read on the front of the train.

The thing that confuses people is the overlap. From Queen's Park to Harrow & Wealdstone the Lioness shares platforms with the Bakerloo line, which surfaces at Queen's Park and runs on the same Network Rail tracks. Ten of the nineteen Lioness stations are Bakerloo stations as well, and at any of them a Bakerloo train and a Lioness train may be standing at the same platform edge going the same way. Our page on the Bakerloo line explains that shared stretch from the Tube's side.

The nine stations that belong to the Lioness alone are Euston, South Hampstead and Kilburn High Road at the London end, and Headstone Lane, Hatch End, Carpenders Park, Bushey, Watford High Street and Watford Junction beyond the Bakerloo's limit. If you are going to any of those six northern ones, this is the only TfL service that stops there.

What the trains are like, and where the floor is

The standard Overground unit, closer in feel to a modern Tube train than to an intercity coach; our guide to the six line names describes the fleet. The detail that catches people on this line is luggage. Euston to Watford Junction is a route travelled with cases, and there is nowhere to put one: no racks, no vestibule, just the aisle or your knees for fifty minutes.

One physical detail matters more than the seat covers. The train floor sits high above the platform on this line. At Wembley Central, where both the Bakerloo and the Lioness call, TfL's station data records the step from platform to train as 157 and 163 millimetres on the Bakerloo platforms and 315 and 325 millimetres on the Lioness platforms. That is a climb of about a hand's span, in both directions, and staff will bring out a boarding ramp if you ask. It is also why a pushchair is harder to get on and off a Lioness train than a Tube train, and our guide to getting around with a pushchair is worth reading first.

Above ground for its whole length, the line is one of the few where you can see out, and the stretch between Harrow & Wealdstone and Bushey runs through genuine outer-suburban back gardens and the odd field. It is not scenery, but it is not a tunnel either.

The peak fare rule that applies to no other line

Everywhere else on the TfL network, peak fares apply to any journey that starts between 06:30 and 09:30 or between 16:00 and 19:00 on a weekday. Between Euston and Watford Junction, TfL applies peak fares by direction instead. Towards Euston, peak is the morning window only. Towards Watford Junction, peak is the evening window only. At every other time, in both directions, the fare is off-peak.

In money: pay as you go from Euston to Watford Junction is £7.20 off-peak and £11.10 peak. So a visitor travelling out of London at 08:30 and back at 17:30 pays £7.20 each way, £14.40 for the round trip, while the same journey pattern in the commuting direction would cost £22.20. Two adults save £15.60 by travelling the tourist way round without doing anything clever.

The rest works as normal: the same contactless card or device at both ends, daily and weekly caps, and no discounts on contactless for children or railcard holders. Our explainer on how the caps actually work covers the traps, and the zones page explains why Watford Junction is priced the way it is.

Changing trains: Euston is the only easy one

At Euston the Lioness platforms are part of the main station, so the change to the Northern and Victoria lines is the ordinary Euston Underground walk rather than a separate hike. Our Euston station guide has the layout, the left luggage and the toilets.

Willesden Junction is the interchange to watch. The Lioness uses the low-level platforms and the Mildmay line uses the high-level ones, and getting between them means a subway and stairs or a lift. Allow five to eight minutes, more with luggage, and do not plan a four-minute connection there. The Mildmay line is the cross-London Overground route that crosses here.

Harrow & Wealdstone is a change of a different kind: it is the end of the Bakerloo line, so northbound passengers off a Bakerloo train wait here for a Lioness train to continue, and the Lioness runs four an hour. It is not the station for Harrow on the Hill, which is a mile and a half away on the Metropolitan line and a different place entirely.

Watford Junction is a full main-line station with fast services to Birmingham and the north, and the Lioness platforms are at the London end of the same complex. It is also where the shuttle bus to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour picks up.

Weekends, evenings and the last train

The Lioness is unusual among London railways in that its weekend service is the same shape as its weekday one: four trains an hour, at 00, 15, 30 and 45 past, on a Sunday as well as a Wednesday. TfL's Journey Planner gives the same 48 to 50 minutes end to end at 13:00 on a Sunday as it does at 13:00 on a weekday.

What does change is the evening. The last Lioness train out of Euston on a weekday leaves at 23:58 and reaches Watford Junction at 00:48. Nothing runs after that, on any night of the week — the weekend overnight trains belong to the Windrush line in east and south London, and its guide explains how limited even that is. Miss the 23:58 and you are looking at a night bus through north-west London or a taxi; our page on what to do if you miss the last Tube covers the options.

Weekend engineering work closes parts of this corridor more often than most, because the Lioness, the Bakerloo and the main line to the north all share the same tracks and any work on them stops everything. Check the line's status on the morning rather than assuming, especially for a timed studio tour ticket.

Step-free access: eight stations out of nineteen

Eight of the nineteen stations have a way in from the street that involves no stair at all, judged on the station records that log a working lift, ramp or level path rather than on any general claim: Euston, Willesden Junction, Wembley Central, Harrow & Wealdstone, Headstone Lane, Hatch End, Carpenders Park and Watford Junction. Four of those work by lift; the three small stations between Harrow and Watford are simply at street level.

The other eleven are not step-free: South Hampstead, Kilburn High Road, Queen's Park, Kensal Green, Harlesden, Stonebridge Park, North Wembley, South Kenton, Kenton, Bushey and Watford High Street. Most of them are Victorian or Edwardian stations with a footbridge or a subway and no lift, and no boarding ramp is recorded as kept on those platforms, so there is no assisted way round it. If step-free travel matters, the practical Lioness stations are the four big interchanges plus the three street-level ones. Step-free and accessible transport in London explains the turn-up-and-go help available at them.

The day out this line owns: Watford Junction and back for £14.40

The one journey most visitors make on the Lioness line is the run to Watford Junction for the Warner Bros. Studio Tour, and the usual advice is to take the fast main-line train instead, which does the same trip in fourteen to twenty minutes and also accepts contactless. That advice is right if you are in a hurry. It is not the whole picture.

The pay-as-you-go fare is the same whichever train you take, so the fast one saves half an hour and no money. What the Lioness gives you is certainty: four trains an hour at the same four minutes past every hour, all day, every day, from a platform at Euston you do not have to find on a departure board. With a timed studio ticket and a group to keep together, a train you cannot miss is worth more than twenty minutes.

The arithmetic for a family of two adults and two children aged under eleven, travelling out at about 08:30 and back at about 17:30, is £7.20 each way for each adult and nothing for the children, so £28.80 for the return journey for all four. That is the off-peak fare in both directions because of the direction rule above. Our guide to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour covers the shuttle bus and the ticket, and children's fares on London transport has the rules on who travels free.

If you have a spare hour at the London end, get off at Kilburn High Road rather than staying on to Euston. It is two stops short, it puts you in the middle of one of the busiest shopping streets in north London, and the theatre and the park are both a short walk away; see Kilburn and Queen's Park.

What goes wrong

Three problems, commonest first. Shared track means shared delays: a problem with a main-line train out of Euston can hold up the Lioness even when nothing is wrong with the Overground. Wembley event days fill the trains for hours in both directions, and Wembley Central is one of the stations the crowds are steered towards on the way out; our page on getting to and from Wembley Stadium explains the split. And because this is a four-trains-an-hour railway, a single cancellation is a thirty-minute wait rather than a five-minute one.

Compensation on the Overground only begins at thirty minutes, which on a line this slow is a higher bar than it sounds: a single missed train will not reach it, but a cancellation and the wait that follows often will. How to complain in Britain sets out the deadline and what a successful claim pays back.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the Lioness line go?

From London Euston north-west to Watford Junction, calling at all nineteen stations including Queen's Park, Willesden Junction, Wembley Central and Harrow & Wealdstone. The whole journey takes 48 to 50 minutes, and trains run every fifteen minutes from early morning until about midnight, seven days a week.

Is the Lioness line the same as the Bakerloo line?

No, but they share ten stations and the same tracks between Queen's Park and Harrow & Wealdstone. A Lioness train continues north to Bushey, Watford High Street and Watford Junction, which the Bakerloo does not reach, and it starts from Euston rather than from Elephant & Castle in the south.

Why is my Lioness line fare cheaper in one direction?

Because TfL charges peak fares on this line by direction. Towards Euston, peak applies Monday to Friday between 06:30 and 09:30. Towards Watford Junction, peak applies between 16:00 and 19:00. Every other journey is off-peak, so travelling out of London in the morning costs £7.20 rather than £11.10.

Does the Lioness line run at night?

No, not even at weekends. The last train from Euston leaves at 23:58 on a weekday, and the only Overground line with overnight trains is the Windrush, on the other side of London. Plan a night bus or a taxi if you are out later than that.

Which Lioness line stations have step-free access?

Eight of nineteen: Euston, Willesden Junction, Wembley Central, Harrow & Wealdstone, Headstone Lane, Hatch End, Carpenders Park and Watford Junction. Note that step-free to the platform is not step-free onto the train: at Wembley Central the step up into a Lioness train is more than 300 millimetres, and staff use a ramp.

Sources

• Transport for London Unified API - Lioness line stop sequence and termini (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Tube and rail fares, peak and off-peak times including the Euston to Watford Junction rule (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London Unified API - single fare, Euston to Watford Junction (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - detailed station data: lifts, ramps, same-level paths and platform-to-train steps (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Night Tube and London Overground night service (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - London Overground (checked September 2026)