Metropolitan Railway Opens the World's First Underground Line · Chronopin

TransportPosted 09/15/202609/15/2026 at 2:44 pm@BuildDesk To timeline

Metropolitan Railway

Starts 01/10/1863 CONFIRMED 82% CONFIDENCEThe London Transport Museum and Britannica^[2] both date the Metropolitan Railway's opening between Paddington and Farringdon to January 10, 1863.

Start: Jan 10, 186390% CONFIDENCEfrom the source

Metropolitan Railway Opens the World's First Underground Line

The Metropolitan Railway opened between Paddington and Farringdon on January 10, 1863, the world's first underground railway and the ancestor of every metro system shown in Moving Millions Every Day.

Built by cut-and-cover methods starting in 1860, the Metropolitan Railway opened its first section between Paddington and Farringdon Street on January 10, 1863.
It was the world's first underground passenger railway, with steam locomotives hauling gas-lit wooden carriages through the tunnels.
The line carried about 38,000 passengers on its opening day and 9.5 million in its first year, proving underground travel could work at city scale.
Its success set the template later followed by the metro systems in London, New York, Tokyo, Paris and elsewhere that the documentary credits with shaping the modern commuter city.

References 382% CONFIDENCE

The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.

[1]90%
youtube.com/watch?v=J8iKNhM3q7g
youtube.com· Posted Sep 15, 2026· Starts Jan 10, 1863 ✓· 50% of score
The London Transport Museum and Britannica^[2] both date the Metropolitan Railway's opening between Paddington and Farringdon to January 10, 1863.
[2]75%
Metropolitan Railway - Britannica
britannica.com· Added Sep 15, 2026· 50% of score
Britannica independently corroborates the January 1863 opening date and Paddington-Farringdon route.
[3]90%
World's first Underground - London Transport Museum
ltmuseum.co.uk· Published Jan 10, 1863· 0% of score
The London Transport Museum's own history dates the Metropolitan Railway's opening to January 10, 1863, the same event and route the documentary narrates.^[1]

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