Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways

The Metropolitan Railway and the Metropolitan District Railway are inextricably linked. Both were empowered to complete the Inner Circle Line in the 1850s, although for a time there was competition between the two. This article attempts to chart the history of the two lines, until they eventually become part of the London Underground.

The oldest section of the ‘’’Metropolitan Railway’’’ (MetR) - the precursor of the Metropolitan Line - opened in 1863, running between Farringdon and Paddington, and was the world's oldest underground railway. Although the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel in New York is sometimes called the "world's oldest subway tunnel", this had no stations and was used by long-distance as well as suburban trains.

Contents

1 Metropolitan Railway 1.1 Line openings 1.2 "Metroland" 1.3 Aylesbury-Verney Junction 1.4 Brill Tramway 2 Metropolitan District Railway 2.1 Line openings 3 Electrification 4 Later history 5 The future

Metropolitan Railway

The Railway was incorporated in 1853 as the ‘North Metropolitan Railway’ and was re-incorporated on 7 August 1854 as a mixed-gauge line: it was opened in January 1863 from a junction with the main line Great Western Railway (GWR) at Bishops Road, Paddington to Victoria Street (later Farringdon Street) in the City of London. A plaque commemorating the opening can be seen at street level outside Baker Street station on the north side of Marylebone Road.

The railway began construction on the line in February 1860. This caused massive traffic disruption in north London: during the work the Fleet Sewer burst into the diggings and flooding the partly-built tunnel. It opened in January 1863: the line was worked for six months by the GWR with broad-gauge rolling stock, but in August 1863, after massive disagreement between the two companies, the MetR found itself having to work the line, and provide the rolling stock on the narrow gauge, at six months’ notice. With assistance from the Great Northern Railway this was achieved: the broad gauge was removed in 1869.

By the turn of the century the MetR had its foot in both the main-line and in the basic underground system for London, as will be seen.

Line openings

The railway now began extending into West London; and then further into the City:

• Hammersmith and City Railway: this first extension to the MetR was also brought about in cooperation with the GWR. It was opened in sections, as follows:
  • 13 June 1864: Notting Hill (now Ladbroke Grove), Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith
  • 1 February 1866: Westbourne Park
  • 16 December 1868: Latimer Road

The section between Westbourne Park and Edgware Road, giving access to the MetR, was the property of the GWR. It was constructed without Parliamentary sanction.

• South Kensington branch: this was also opened in sections:
  • 1 October 1868: Praed Street Junction (Paddington) - Gloucester Road
  • 24 December 1868: South Kensington
• City extension: by 1864 the Metropolitan District Railway (see below) had been sanctioned, and the MetR gradually extended its City line from its original terminus at Farringdon Street to meet it, as follows:
  • 23 December 1865: to Moorgate Street (now Moorgate)
  • 12 July 1875: to Bishopsgate (now Liverpool Street)
  • 18 November 1876: to Aldgate, with an impressive terminal being built there.

"Metroland"

• The Railway now began expansion to the north and west. Railways always had a great deal of influence on the areas through which they ran, not least in this case. In the 1920s the term "Metroland" was coined by the Metropolitan's marketing department: advertisements extolling the benefits of healthy and bracing air and a train service unequalled for frequency and rapidity ... to and from the City without change of carriage appeared; and the railway provided a broad-sheet for House Seekers. Shortly after WWI four estates were being laid out (at Neasden, Wembley Park, Pinner and Rickmansworth); and places such as Harrow Garden Village came into existence; John Betjeman was a great follower of this form of suburbia.
  • Metropolitan and St John's Wood Railway:
    • April 1868: opened to St John's Wood
    • 30 June 1879: to West Hampstead
    • 24 November 1879: to Willesden Green
    • 2 August 1880: to Harrow (now Harrow-on-the-Hill)
    • 25 May 1885: Pinner
    • 1 September 1887: to Rickmansworth
    • July 1889: to Chesham
    • September 1892: to Aylesbury
• The extension westwards from Harrow to Uxbridge was opened on 4 July 1904

Aylesbury-Verney Junction

The Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway (A&BR) (between Aylesbury and Verney Junction), was incorporated on 6 August 1860, opened on 23 September 1868, was amalgamated with the MetR from 1 July 1891. In April 1906 the section from Harrow to Verney Junction was leased to a Joint Committee of the MetR/GCR: it was worked on a five-yearly basis alternately by the two joint owners. Passenger services on the line were withdrawn between Quainton Road and Verney Junction from 6 July 1936, when the intermediate stations of Granborough Road and Winslow Road were closed. The last through service, a parcels train from Verney Junction, was worked on 6 September 1947.

Brill Tramway

North of Aylesbury at Quainton Road was a 6.5-mile (10-km) branch railway, officially known as the Oxford and Aylesbury Tramroad but also known as the Wootton Tramway or the Brill Tramway, to Brill. The original Wootton Tramway was run under the auspices of the Duke of Buckingham, and was built between 1870 and 1872.

The locomotives at first were of the 0-4-0 single-cylinder traction engine type. In 1894 the A&BR took over the working of the tramway, and by now two Manning, Wardle locomotives were in use: no 1 Huddersfield (replaced in 1899 by Wootton) and no 2 Brill. All were 0-6-0 saddle tanks with inside cylinders.

It was always the intention that the Tramway would in due course run to Oxford; in spite of the scheme being once again proposed in 1899, it never came to anything. The Brill Tramway closed to all traffic on 1 December 1935.

Notes from article in Railway Magazine, October 193?

Metropolitan District Railway

The Metropolitan District Railway (usually called the District Railway) was incorporated ten years later than the MetR, on 29 July 1864. As noted above it was set up to complete the "Inner Circle".

Line openings

The main line of the District commenced at High Street Kensington and extended to Mansion House. Sections were opened as follows:

• 24 December 1868: Kensington to Westminster
• 30 May 1870: to Blackfriars
• 3 July 1871: to Mansion House

The following two openings connected the District with other railways:

• 1 February 1872 link to the London and North Western Railway at Willesden via Addison Road (renamed Kensington Olympia in 1946).
• 6 October 1884: the "City Lines and Extensions" (which completed the "Inner Circle); and also provided a line to Whitechapel. The latter line gave connection with the East London Railway. Trains began to run around both parts of the Inner Circle: the District from Hammersmith to New Cross (now New Cross Gate (London, Brighton and South Coast Railway) via the southern part of the Circle; and MetR trains to New Cross via the northern route. The trains used the Thames Tunnel.

Before that, however, the District had begun extending its main line both eastwards and westwards, and had at the same time been making connections with main line railways:

• 9 September 1874: the "Hammersmith Extension" from Gloucester Road through Earl's Court
  • 1 June 1877: that line extended to Ravenscourt Park where connection was made with the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), allowing through trains to run over LSWR tracks to Richmond. The LSWR branch from Richmond to Addison Road had been opened in 1869.
• 1 July 1879: Turnham Green - Ealing (now Ealing Broadway where a physical connection (now taken up) was made the GWR
• 1 March 1880: the "Fulham Extension" from Earls Court through West Brompton to Putney Bridge
• 1 May 1883: Acton Town - Hounslow Town (renamed Hounslow East in 1926)
  • 21 July 1884 line extended to a terminus at Hounslow Barracks (now Hounslow West). The branch was extended to take the line to Heathrow Airport in 19769?).
• 3 June 1889: LSWR opened its Putney Bridge - Wimbledon branch, and District Line trains exercised running powers over it
• 2 June 1902: Whitechapel and Bow Railway (2.5 miles (4 km)) gave connection with the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway
• 23 June 1903: South Harrow line opened to Park Royal
  • 28 June 1903: completion of line to South Harrow and a junction with the MetR line to Uxbridge
• 13 June 1905: South Acton branch

In effect this completed the Metropolitan District Railway system.

Electrification

Electrification had been considered by the MetR as early as the 1880s, but such a method of traction was still in its infancy, and agreement would need to be reached with the District because of the joint ownership of the Inner Circle. Experiments were later carried out on the Earls Court-High Street Kensington section, and a jointly-owned train of six coaches began a passenger service in 1900. As a result of those tests a MetR/District committee in 1901 recommended overhead AC traction for the system; this was accepted by both parties but when an American group took over control of the District there was disagreement. The group was led by Charles Yerkes, whose experience in the United States led him to favour DC, with third rail pickup. After arbritration the latter system was taken up and the railways began electrifying the routes, using multiple-unit stock:

• 1 January 1905 Baker Street - Uxbridge: the line been opened in July the preceding year, and was worked by steam for the first six months
• 1 July 1905 Aldgate-Whitechapel: initially for the District line service
• 13-24 September 1905: gradual electrification of the Inner Circle
• 5 November 1906: Edgware Road-Hammersmith; and the Addison Road (now Olympia) branch
• 1 March 1910: Rayners Lane - South Harrow: this enabled the District line to extend its services to Uxbridge
• 31 March 1913: East London Railway: MetR provided the service.

Services on the "Extension line" in the open remained steam-hauled for some years, necessitating change of locomotive:

• 1 November 1906: electric locomotives on trains for Chesham, Aylesbury and Verney Junction were changed for steam locomotives at Wembley Park
• 19 July 1908: Harrow now became the change point
• 5 January 1925: extended to Rickmansworth
• 9 September 1961: Amersham became terminus of MetR trains

Two branches were built for electric traction at the outset:

• 2 November 1925: Moor Park to Watford, a joint venture with the London and North Eastern Railway
• 10 December 1932: Wembley Park tube station to Stanmore, operated by the MetR at the outset, but on 20 November 1939 the services were taken over by the Bakerloo Line (and now by the Jubilee Line)

Later history

Although much of the line was electrified, steam-hauled passenger trains (beyond Amersham) ran until 1961 and maintenance trains as late as 1972 (the line still holds annual "steam days" in commemoration).

The Metropolitan Railway was taken over by the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, becoming the Metropolitan Line of the London Underground. The line was successively rationalised during this period.

The section north of Aylesbury was closed in 1936 (though services did get to Quainton Road again between 1943 and 1948). In the same year a service extension from Whitechapel to Barking was implemented along the District Line tracks. In 1948 it was nationalised, along with the rest of the Underground.

The future

It now seems possible that the Watford branch may be diverted from its present terminus in south Watford near Cassiobury Park line to Watford Junction via the disused tracks of the Croxley Green branch. A combined scheme (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/press-centre/press-releases/press-releases-content.asp?prID=36) led by Hertfordshire County Council and backed by Transport for London is seeking to build it using a Government grant.