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North of Harrow on the Hill, the Met's past as a mainline railway becomes more obvious as it stretches deep into the countryside it is possible to see sheep, tractors and combine harvesters from the windows of a Tube train.
After Harrow on the Hill the Met becomes a 4 track mainline style railway with the fast tracks allowing Chiltern trains and fast Met line trains to avoid suburban stations therefore almost halving journey times. The next station north of Harrow is appropriately enough; North Harrow. Like West Harrow it has a shed-like roof on part of the platform and then metal railings along the rest giving it a very simplistic look. Next station is Pinner. At Pinner there is a distinctively modern footbridge built in 2002 to replace the unsafe subway under the tracks. The entrances to the subway are still visible at the northern end of the station. The footbridge was upgraded to step free in 2008. Next is Northwood Hills, opened in 1933 to serve new development it's name was chosen by a woman who won a competition. the name is ironic considering Northwood Hills is lower in altitude than Northwood.
after Northwood is Moor park, one of the most peaceful stations on the Underground except perhaps for Roading Valley! the station has two island platforms. One to serve all stations trains and two for fast. Since this is where the Watford branch diverges, fast trains stop here so that Watford passengers can catch fast trains and then interchange. Chiltern trains do not stop here instead running fast through the platforms. the stopping points of Chiltern's services have been continuously changed over the years. Some Chiltern trains did use to stop at Moor Park however this stopped in 1993. There was also a time when trains would frequently skip Harrow, Moor Park and even Rickmansworth, running fast from Marylebone all the way to Chorleywood. Today a very small few Chiltern trains skip Chorleywood and Rickmansworth and a few more just skip Rickmansworth. I have witnessed a Chiltern train skip Harrow but this is likely to be a one off occurrence. Although Chiltern trains do not regularly stop at Moor Park there was a time in 2025 when, due to a major failure of some kind, passengers had to be de-trained. A Met line train was brought into the same platform to do the same stopping only a few feet from the Chiltern train.
Moor Park: N Chadwick-geograph
Watford: Ed Webster-wikimedia commons
Northwood: Oxyman-wikimedia commons
After Moor Park the four lines merge into two with the slow lines heading to Croxley and Watford with the fast lines going to Amersham. With a crossover in place to allow trains from Amersham to run onto the slow lines. The reason for this arrangement is that trains from far out in Amersham used to run fast at all times, interchanging with the Watford line at Moor Park and then running non-stop to Harrow however this was scrapped in 2012 to provide greater service on the stations between Moor Park and Harrow. Today fast trains on the Met line only run during peak hours as well as a few throughout the day on weekends. Until then the track arrangement at Watford South Junction was different. Instead of a crossover the slow lines split in two with two going to Watford and Two merging with the fast lines a catenary that took cables over this alignment is still in place. The original intent for the Watford line was to build through Cassiobury Park and build a station on Watford high street. The railway was never able to get planning permission for this however and the station was built in a residential area outside of the town centre. There was a plan to revive this idea by means of using a mothballed British Rail line from Croxley Green station to Watford Junction which closed in the late 90s and was a "ghost service" until the early 2000s. This would mean the Met sharing track with the Overground from Watford High Street and Watford Junction. The plan was shelved in 2016 by Mayor Sadiq Khan however the line is still safeguarded in case the idea should be revisited in the future. As an interesting side note this railway also had a branch that went south below the Met line north of Moor Park (the line is still visible as a footpath) It ran to Rickmansworth Church Street. As previously mentioned there was once a plan to connect this line to the Great Western line into Paddington through Uxbridge.
Another interesting feature of the Watford branch is the north curve. This is a loop of track that allows a train travelling south from Rickmansworth to head to Watford rather than London. the line is a two track electrified line that diverges from the line south of Croxley and heads west through a tunnel (the only one on the Underground outside of London) to join the line to Amersham. This line is rarely used. Although there is very little information about this the general idea is that it used to see a regular service trains travelling southbound could run to London via Watford to provide additional service to Watford however this ended in 1960. It is still possible to ride the north curve however. A few empty stock movements early in the morning and late at night are timetabled and can be ridden by passengers. The most accessible is the train that comes from Rickmansworth sidings, waits at the southbound platform at Rickmansworth and then at around 5:30 AM departs towards Watford. There are other instances when the curve has been used for example: during COVID due to the reduced service enforced by lockdown regulations a single train was used on the Chesham branch but rather than going into London it used the north curve and terminated at Watford. On another occasion due to engineering works on the line into Harrow trains were terminated at Northwood using the Siding usually used to load old stock onto trucks to be scrapped and to simplify this service trains from Amersham and Chesham ran to Northwood via Watford and Croxley. This is so rare that is is not set in the P.I.S so it was disabled and the driver made manual announcements. The destination of the train was written on a piece of A4 paper taped to the windscreen! From this level of detail you can bet that the author of this page has ridden the curve in both these circumstances! the only other time I could think of is when heritage stock such as steam on the Met or the 1938 stock is run between Chesham and Watford. This tunnel or rather a lack of easily accessible information about it was actually the inspiration for this website.
Rickmansworth is the site of many sidings where trains are put to bed. Part of the reasons for the retention of the north curve is that it allows trains to run out of Watford early in the morning that are stabled at Rickmansworth overnight. The many sidings here are a legacy of the old electric-steam changeover. Before the electrification of the line north of Rickmansworth, electric locomotives took coaches to Rickmansworth where they would be swapped out for steam locos in a world record breaking time of 3 minuets. This is also the reason behind the short 3rd platform at Rickmansworth. This was still connected to a siding until recently when it was lifted although the track in the platform itself remains slowly becoming overgrown. the line then Heads under the M25 and into Chorleywood, the 4th least busy station on the Underground at the time of writing and the least on the Metropolitan line. The station retains some relics of it's great central past with a very obvious path where tracks used to be in the car park was once an avoiding line for Great Central trains speeding though to destinations as far as Nottingham and Manchester. the far side of the car park was once the goods yard with two sidings branching off the avoider line. from beyond Chorleywood it is possible to get one of the most scenic views on the Underground as the line moves from suburbs into countryside look out the right hand side of the train when heading northbound and you might even see sheep.
Chorleywood:Mike Quin-wikimedia commons
Rickmansworth: Nigel Cox-wikimedia commons
Chalfont and Latimer, like Rickmansworth has a short 3rd platform but for a very different reason. that being that Chalfont is the junction with the Chesham line. Prior to 2010 trains to Chesham were for the most part 4 car shuttle services that terminated at the bay platform at Chalfont. these days the platform is still in place and is occasionally used to store maintenance trains from Chalfont almost until Amersham the single, bi-directional Chesham line runs along side the main line in a three track configuration. this highly unusual layout has caused issues. for example in 2023 a track worker who was unfamiliar with the line was caught of guard by the fact that Chesham trains run both ways on the line and was stuck and injured by a train that had apparently crept up behind without them noticing. Similarly in 2021 a Chiltern train that had previously passed a signal at danger ran over the points west of Chalfont and Latimer that were set for a Chesham train and subsequently came close to a head-on collision with this train. After it diverges from the main alignment it is the longest stretch of single track line on the underground and the longest stretch between two stations It is an even more scenic stretch than earlier and Chesham itself is a beautiful rural like station that almost seems out of place on the Underground network. It once had two platforms and a run around line however now there is only one. Amersham still has 3 platforms. The southbound is shared between Chiltern and Underground whilst the two have separate northbound platforms. This is to allow Chiltern trains to run uninterrupted towards Ayelsbury and Met line trains can take time to detrain all passengers before running into the reversing siding north of the station to turn around and head into the southbound platform.
Cheham: Nigel Thompson-geograph
Amersham: mattbuck-wikimedia commons
Chalfont: wikimedia commons
That is the end of the line for Met line trains however, it wasn't always. The next page details the old line north of here and its past present and future.
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