Editing Metropolitan line (section)

=== Metropolitan Railway ===
{{Main|Metropolitan Railway}}
[[File:Constructing the Metropolitan Railway.jpg|thumb|Construction of the Metropolitan line near King's Cross station (1861)]]
The Metropolitan Railway, also known as ''the Met'', was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from [[City of London|the City]] to what were to become the [[Middlesex]] suburbs. Its first line connected the mainline railway termini at {{stnlnk|Paddington}}, {{stnlnk|Euston}} and [[London King's Cross railway station|King's Cross]] to the City, built beneath the [[New Road (London)|New Road]] using the [[cut-and-cover]] method between Paddington and King's Cross, and in tunnel and cuttings beside [[Farringdon Road]] from King's Cross to near [[Smithfield, London|Smithfield]]. The world's first underground railway, it opened on 10 January 1863 with gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. The line operated at a frequency of three trains per hour, rising to four trains per hour during the peak periods.{{sfn|Green|1987|pp=3–5}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Dennis |last2=Pigram |first2=Ron |year=1988 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]] |title=The Golden Years of the Metropolitan Railway and the Metro-land Dream |isbn=1-870630-11-4|page=32}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Pipe|first1=Victoria|title=The Railway Adventures: Places, Trains, People and Stations|last2=Marshall|first2=Geoff|publisher=September Publishing|year=2018|isbn=9781910463871|location=Tewkesbury|pages=82}}</ref> In the 1871 plans for an underground railway in Paris, it was called the ''Métropolitain''.<ref>{{cite book |first=Benson |last=Bobrick |title=Labyrinths of Iron |url=https://archive.org/details/labyrinthsofiron00bobr |url-access=registration |publisher=Newsweek books |year=1981 |page=[https://archive.org/details/labyrinthsofiron00bobr/page/142 142]|isbn=9780882252995 }}</ref>

The railway was soon extended from both ends and northwards via a branch from [[Baker Street tube station|Baker Street]]. It reached [[Hammersmith tube station (Circle and Hammersmith & City lines)|Hammersmith]] in 1864 and [[Richmond station (London)|Richmond]] in 1877; it completed the ''[[Circle line (London Underground)|Inner Circle]]'' in 1884,{{sfn|Green|1987|pp=7–10}} but the most important route became the line west and north-west into the Middlesex countryside, where it stimulated the development of new suburbs. [[Harrow-on-the-Hill station|Harrow]] was reached in 1880, and ultimately, as far as {{stnlnk|Verney Junction}} in [[Buckinghamshire]], more than {{convert|50|mi|km|abbr=off}} from Baker Street. From the end of the 19th century, the railway shared tracks with the [[Great Central Railway]] route out of {{rws|Marylebone}}.{{sfn|Green|1987|pp=11–14}}

[[File:Au Morandarte Flickr IMG 1744 (14652395318).jpg|thumb|12 ''Sarah Siddons'' with vintage train at Hammersmith]]
Electric traction was introduced in 1905 with [[electric multiple unit]]s operating between Uxbridge, Harrow-on-the-Hill and Baker Street. To remove steam and smoke from the tunnels in central London, the railway purchased [[Metropolitan Railway electric locomotives|electric locomotives]], exchanged for steam locomotives at Harrow from 1908.{{sfn|Green|1987|pp=24–26}} In 1910, a seventeen-minute silent film was made showing large portions of the journey from Baker Street to Aylesbury and Uxbridge, seen from the cab of a train.<ref name="A Trip on the Metropolitan Railway (1910)">{{cite web|title=A Trip on the Metropolitan Railway (1910)|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1185333/|website=Screen Online|publisher=British Film Institute|access-date=25 January 2016}}</ref>

Unlike other railways in the London area, the Met developed land for housing, thus [[Value capture|benefitting from the increase in the value of its land]] caused by the building of the railway. After [[World War I]] it promoted its housing estates near the railway with the "[[Metro-land]]" brand.

To improve services, more powerful electric and steam locomotives were purchased in the 1920s. A short branch opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925. After [[World War I]], the {{convert|4|mi|km|adj=on}} Stanmore branch was built from Wembley Park.{{sfn|Green|1987|pp=43–45}}