Hampstead Junction Railway

The Hampstead Junction Railway was a railway line in north-west London established by act of Parliament on August 20, 1853 and opened on January 2, 1860, connecting the North London Railway at Camden with the North and South Western Junction Railway at Willesden through Kentish Town, Gospel Oak, Hampstead Heath, Finchley Road, West Hampstead and Brondesbury. It was intended principally to let local passenger traffic on the North London Railway extend west to Kew and Richmond without congestion at Camden station and Primrose Hill Tunnel. The company was absorbed by the North London Railway in 1867, and its route remains in operation today as the North London Line, carrying both passenger and freight traffic after a 1996 modernization that included tunnel strengthening and conversion to 25 kV AC overhead electrification.