Oxford, Aylesbury and Metropolitan Junction Railway Company

Euston railway station opened in 1837 , the first railway station connecting London with the industrial heartlands of the West Midlands and Lancashire.[82] Railways were banned by a Parliamentary commission from operating in London itself and the station was built on the northern boundary.[83] Other termini north of London followed at Paddington (1838), Bishopsgate (1840), Fenchurch Street (1841), King's Cross (1852) and St Pancras (1868). All were outside the built-up area, making them inconvenient.[83][note 9]
Charles Pearson (1793–1862) had proposed an underground railway connecting the City of London with the main line rail termini in around 1840.[84] In 1854 he commissioned the first traffic survey, determining that each day 200,000 walked into the City, 44,000 travelled by omnibus, and 26,000 in private carriages.[86] A Parliamentary Commission backed Pearson's proposal over other schemes.[86] Despite concerns about vibration causing subsidence of buildings,[87] the problems of compensating the many thousands whose homes were destroyed during digging of the tunnel,[88] and fears that the tunnelling might break into Hell,[89][note 10] construction began in 1860.[90] On 9 January 1863 the line opened as the Metropolitan Railway (MR), the world's first underground passenger railway.[91]


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