The Metropolitan line connects Aldgate in the capital’s financial heart, with Amersham and Chesham in Buckinghamshire, with branches to Watford and Uxbridge. Coloured purple on the tube map, the line has 34 stations. The line is one of the only two London Underground lines to cross the Greater London boundary, the other being the Central line.
In 1863 the Metropolitan Railway began the world’s first underground railway between Paddington and Farringdon Street with wooden carriages and steam locomotives, but its most important route became the line north into the Middlesex countryside, where it stimulated the development of new suburbs.
Of the 34 stations on the line, nine are below ground.
Interesting facts
- Highest station above mean sea level is Amersham at 147 metres
- Furthest station from central London is Chesham, being 47km to Aldgate
- Longest distance between stations is Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer at 6.3km