Competition With London Underground
The Southern Railway and its predecessor companies has had little competition from London Underground south of the Thames, where the subsoil was largely unsuitable for tunnelling and the mainline railways had extensive networks in place before the underground railways were developed.
The Southern Region however dealt with a different environment, marked by British Rail (BR) and London Underground (LUL) both being state-owned.
London Underground's services were advanced over Southern Region (and other) metals, either through dual-running or by ceding BR metals to LUL. The LUL service to Wimbledon for instance slowly replaced the former Southern Region service. Tramlink took over the Wimbledon to Croydon West via Mitcham line in 2000.
The Waterloo & City Line (nicknamed 'The Drain' by both staff and users), British Rail's only "Tube" service, was given over to London Underground upon privatisation BR in 1994.
Read more about this topic: Southern Region Of British Railways
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“An underground grower, blind and a common brown;
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—Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)