District Railway

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This 1914 poster shows the District Railway station under Charing Cross station.

The District Railway , officially called the Metropolitan District Railway , was a railway company and a predecessor of what is now the London Underground .

history

The District Railway was founded in 1864 to complete the Inner Circle , a ring line in central London . This second company was supposed to relieve the Metropolitan Railway , which had operated the world's first underground train since 1863 , in its search for donors. The first route between South Kensington and Westminster opened in 1868. In the first few years, the Metropolitan Railway carried out rail operations until the District Railway began using its own rolling stock from 1871. She quickly expanded her route network to the western suburbs of Fulham , Richmond , Ealing and Hounslow . In 1884 she completed the Inner Circle, from 1902 she operated as far as Upminster in east London.

District Railway and Metropolitan Railway operated together on the ring line, where they - unlike originally intended at the establishment - delivered a fierce competition (mainly because of the personal rivalry of their chairmen James Staats Forbes and Edward Watkin ). Both companies used steam trains and at the turn of the century came under pressure from new, electrically operated underground lines. In order to finance the electrification of its route network, the District Railway was taken over in 1901 by the US investor Charles Tyson Yerkes , who integrated it into the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) holding company . The first electric trains ran in 1905, and the conversion to the new traction was completed in the same year.

From 1911 to 1939, trains ran several times a day to Southend-on-Sea and Shoeburyness in cooperation with the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway . On July 1, 1933, the District Railway went on together with the other UERL subways, the Metropolitan Railway and the tram and bus companies in the public company London Passenger Transport Board . Today, former routes and stations of the District Railway are used by three lines of the London Underground ( District Line , Piccadilly Line , Circle Line ).

literature

  • Mike Horne: The District Line . Capital Transport, London 2006, ISBN 1-85414-292-5 .
  • John R. Day, John Reed: The Story of London's Underground . 10th edition. Capital Transport, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-85414-316-7 .

Web links