In February 2024, TfL announced a re-branding of this service as the Liberty line;[3] the new name took effect in November 2024.

[5] The line is single-track throughout, electrified at 25 kV 50 Hz AC, has a loading gauge of W6, and a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h).

Additional freight business came after the Midland Railway takeover of the LT&SR when a private siding was added at Romford for a builders' merchants.

[9] In 1956 Upminster was enlarged and a new underground depot opened and the end through service from Romford to Grays ceased.

To accommodate the truncated service, from 20 April 1957 a new bay platform numbered six opened at Upminster and as a result the link between the branch and the LT&S line was removed in 1959 effectively making it part of the Great Eastern route.

A survey of passenger numbers was carried out in 1964 as part of the Beeching report and a closure notice was rapidly published.

Local opposition was loud and organised and the closure was rejected, mainly due to the large number of commuters using Emerson Park Halt.

[15] The line was electrified in the 1980s and electric trains using a single Class 315 unit based at Ilford began operating on 17 April 1986.

[17] The line transferred to become part of the London Overground network in May 2015 and services were again provided by a single Class 315 unit.

In July 2023, TFL announced that it would be giving each of the six Overground services unique names by the end of the following year.

[19][20] In February 2024, it was confirmed that the Romford–Upminster service would be named the Liberty line ("to reference the historical independence of the people of the borough of Havering") and would be coloured grey on the updated network map.

This building itself was directly opposite the GER station entrance and was of 3 storeys with the booking hall on the ground floor and including accommodation for the stationmaster.

[citation needed] At Upminster a small engine shed was initially provided in the area which is now occupied by the underground depot,[clarification needed] and the station was substantially rebuilt in the early 1930s to accommodate the District Railway extension with a separate Grays-facing bay platform being added at this time.

[24] There were plans to link the line from platform six at Upminster to the reception tracks of the London Underground depot there in order to enable the transfer of London Underground D78 Stock units onto the main line to be hauled away by diesel locomotive for refurbishment at the Ilford depot.

As of November 2024[update], the typical off-peak service pattern is:[5] The new London Overground line names and colours were introduced across the London rail network in November 2024 During the construction of the railway in 1892, the geologist T. V. Holmes discovered a five-metre layer of boulder clay underlying the gravel and sand in a section just north of what is now St Andrew's Park.