Electric traction was introduced in 1905 with electric multiple units operating between Uxbridge, Harrow-on-the-Hill and Baker Street. To remove steam and smoke from the tunnels in central London, the railway purchased electric locomotives, exchanged for steam locomotives at Harrow from 1908. In 1910, a seventeen-minute silent film recording was made showing large portions of the journey from Baker Street to Aylesbury and Uxbridge, seen from the cab of a train. The film survives and is publicly available.
Unlike other railways in the London area, the Met developed land for housing, thus 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 Stanmore branch was built from Wembley Park.
On 1 July 1933 the Metropolitan was amalgamated with other Underground railways, tramway companies and bus operators to form the London Passenger Transport Board, and a period of rationalisation followed.
While the Metropolitan was run as an outer suburban route with steam-hauled trains and goods services, the LPTB wished to focus on electrified trains and suburban traffic. Goods services were passed to the London and North Eastern Railway, which also took over the role of providing steam locomotives for trains beyond the end of electrification at Rickmansworth. All services north-west of were withdrawn by 1936 though services returned to between 1943 and 1948.
The 1930s was a period of rapid growth for the north-western suburbs of London, and LPTB developed ambitious plans to simplify the Metropolitan line and expand capacity. Several stations on the Uxbridge branch were rebuilt, replacing temporary wooden buildings with modernist designs and giving Uxbridge station a new site in the town centre. A major bottleneck in the line, the double-track tunnel from Baker Street to Finchley Road, was bypassed by boring two tube tunnels underneath the Metropolitan tunnels, transferring slow services and the Stanmore branch to the Bakerloo line. (This route was transferred to the Jubilee line in 1979.) In 1936 the line was extended east from to along the tracks of the District line. London Transport inherited a number of incompatible electric multiple units from the railway, including the 1927–33 multiple-unit compartment stock used on routes to Watford and Rickmansworth, and these were refurbished to form a uniform fleet and designated London Underground T Stock. In the 1950s, F Stock trains, with sliding doors under the control of the guard, were transferred from the District line; these mainly worked the semi-fast Harrow and Uxbridge services.
A major rebuilding of the main line from Wembley Park to Amersham was planned in the 1930s but delayed by the war. The line from Wembley to Harrow was rebuilt immediately after the war and the project was completed from 1956–1962, on a more modest scale than originally planned. Until 1961, passenger trains continued to be attached to a steam locomotive at to run to Aylesbury. The rebuilding electrified the line from Rickmansworth to Amersham, transferring all Aylesbury services to British Railways. A pair of fast lines was added from Harrow to north of Moor Park by 1962, allowing outer-suburban trains to run fast to Moor Park. Aluminium A stock, originally unpainted, replaced the T stock and locomotive-hauled trains. More A Stock trains were built in 1962–63 to replace the trains on the Uxbridge service, giving the main line a single train type for all services. A Stock was 4-car units that could operate as four- or eight-car trains; normally operated as eight cars, a 4-car unit operated the Chesham shuttle. One person operation of the trains was proposed in 1972, but due to conflict with the trades unions was not introduced on the line until 1986.
Although the East London line had been an isolated shuttle since 1939, it was shown on London Underground maps as part of the Metropolitan line until 1968. In 1970 it was shown with a thin white line in the middle and labelled the "East London section". By the 1985 map it had become the "East London Line", remaining the same colour as the Metropolitan line with a white line in the middle, changed to orange by the 1990 map. In 1990 the Hammersmith & City line became a separate line from Hammersmith to Whitechapel (Barking during the peak), the Metropolitan line being from Aldgate to Baker Street and northwards to Amersham with branches to Chesham, Uxbridge and Watford.
In 2003, the infrastructure was partly privatised in a public–private partnership managed by the Metronet consortium. Metronet went into administration in 2007 and Transport for London took over responsibilities in the end. Tube Lines was later acquired by TfL in 2011, and managed as owner-designer firm.
On 12 December 2010 the service to Amersham was reduced from four trains per hour to two, and a direct service between Chesham and central London was introduced, replacing the 4-car Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer shuttle. The final passenger services operated by the A Stock ran on 26 September 2012, followed by a ticketed public railtour on 29 September.
Statute of Kilkenny
The Statute of Kilkenny were a set of laws made by the English in 1367 to try and save the English colony in Ireland. The laws were made by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence. They were passed at a meeting of the Irish parliament held at Kilkenny.
The English had difficulty in taking over Ireland. The first English settlers, the Anglo-Irish, began to become Irish in the way they viewed the world. They began to put their own interests ahead of those of the English royalty. The government of Ireland had become weak after the battles with Edward Bruce, and the arrival of the Black Death weakened the country even more. Edward III of England became concerned that the Anglo-Irish were becoming too powerful and threatened his rights and interests in Ireland. He attempted three times to control their increasing independence.
Edward III finally sent his third son, Lionel of Antwerp, to Ireland to try and get back control. He was very concerned that the Anglo-Irish had become more Irish than the Irish themselves. The Statute of Kilkenny were laws designed to bring Ireland back under the control of English born nobles, not English descendants in Ireland. These laws were serious, to break one was seen as treason and could be punished by death.
The Statute of Kilkenny had a lot of laws made to separate the English from the Irish. It was against the law for the English in Ireland to:
Because of the weak government, they were not able to make people obey the new laws, and the Anglo-Irish ignored them.
Tramlink
Tramlink (also called Croydon Tramlink) is a tramway system in south London in the United Kingdom which began operation in May 2000. The service is operated by First London on behalf of Transport for London (TfL). The TfL team responsible for Tramlink is called London Tramlink, matching London Buses, London Underground, and so on.
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is a light metro or light rail system in London, England. It opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of East London. It currently covers several areas of London. To the north, it reaches Stratford. To the south, Lewisham. To the west, Tower Gateway and Bank in the City of London financial district. To the east, Beckton, London City Airport and Woolwich Arsenal. The DLR is fully computer operated. It is automated and the only job is the emergency stop button.
London Overground