page_title: Metropolitan Railway
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Metropolitan Railway / History / Electrification, 1900–14 / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: A joint Metropolitan and District Railway experimental electric train that ran between Earl's Court and High Street Kensington in 1900. Author labelled as unknown on the LT Museum website
context_page_description: The Metropolitan Railway was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex suburbs. Its first line connected the main-line railway termini at Paddington, Euston, and King's Cross to the City. The first section was built beneath the New Road using cut-and-cover between Paddington and King's Cross and in tunnel and cuttings beside Farringdon Road from King's Cross to near Smithfield, near the City. It opened to the public on 10 January 1863 with gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives, the world's first passenger-carrying designated underground railway.
  The line was soon extended from both ends, and northwards via a branch from Baker Street. Southern branches, directly served, reached Hammersmith in 1864, Richmond in 1877 and the original completed the Inner Circle in 1884. The most important route was northwest into the Middlesex countryside, stimulating the development of new suburbs.
context_section_description: At the start of the 20th century, the District and the Met saw increased competition in central London from the new electric deep-level tube lines. With the opening in 1900 of the Central London Railway from Shepherd's Bush to the City with a flat fare of 2d, the District and the Met together lost four million passengers between the second half of 1899 and the second half of 1900. The polluted atmosphere in the tunnels was becoming increasingly unpopular with passengers and conversion to electric traction was seen as the way forward. Electrification had been considered by the Met as early as the 1880s, but such a method of traction was still in its infancy, and agreement would be needed with the District because of the shared ownership of the Inner Circle. A jointly owned train of six coaches ran an experimental passenger service on the Earl's Court to High Street Kensington section for six months in 1900. This was considered a success, tenders were requested and in 1901 a Met and District joint committee recommended the Ganz three-phase AC system with overhead wires. This was accepted by both parties until the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) took control of the District. The UERL was led by the American Charles Yerkes, whose experience in the United States led him to favour DC with a third rail similar to that on the City & South London Railway and Central London Railway. After arbitration by the Board of Trade a DC system with four rails was taken up and the railways began electrifying using multiple-unit stock and electric locomotives hauling carriages.
  In 1904, the Met opened a 10.5 MW coal-fired power station at Neasden, which supplied 11 kV 33.3 Hz current to five substations that converted this to 600 V DC using rotary converters.
  Meanwhile, the District had been building a line from Ealing to South Harrow and had authority for an extension to Uxbridge. In 1899, the District had problems raising the finance and the Met offered a rescue package whereby it would build a branch from Harrow to Rayners Lane and take over the line to Uxbridge, with the District retaining running rights for up to three trains an hour. The necessary Act was passed in 1899 and construction on the 7.5 miles (12.1 km) long branch started in September 1902, requiring 28 bridges and a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) long viaduct with 71 arches at Harrow. As this line was under construction it was included in the list of lines to be electrified, together with the railway from Baker Street to Harrow, the inner circle and the joint GWR and Met H&C. The Met opened the line to Uxbridge on 30 June 1904 with one intermediate station at Ruislip, initially worked by steam. Wooden platforms the length of three cars opened at Ickenham on 25 September 1905, followed by similar simple structures at Eastcote and Rayners Lane on 26 May 1906.
caption: The jointly owned experimental passenger train that ran for six months in 1900
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