companies—the Metropolitan, GNR, Midland, LCDR and the South Eastern Railway (SER)—and routes including Victoria to Peterborough as well as services from north London to Chatham and Dover. A service operated from Liverpool to Paris via the Widened Lines, departing at 08:00 and arriving in Paris by 22:50, having travelled by across the English Channel in a paddle steamer. Trains continued to ascend up the Hotel Curve from the Metropolitan station and reverse into the mainline station until 1878, when a new platform was built on the western side of the GNR tracks. This became known as the King's Cross Suburban station, but suffered from several problems including a steep incline and sharp curve, along with a build-up of smoke because of its proximity to the mouth of the tunnel. Congestion was somewhat alleviated when a connection between Finsbury Park and Canonbury allowed use of the North London Railway tracks to take some of the traffic from the GNR lines into Broad Street station in the City of London rather than down the Metropolitan line. In 1892 the station was linked to the concourse of the mainline station by a foot tunnel. Arrival of the deep tube and relocation of Metropolitan platforms The advent of deep-level tube lines at the turn of the twentieth century caused major changes in the underground network. The Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway, later known as the Piccadilly line, opened a station serving King's Cross and St Pancras in 1906, and the City & South London Railway, now part of the Northern line, opened its station the following year. The tube platforms were linked to King's Cross Metropolitan through the same foot tunnel as the mainline, making one station complex. The Metropolitan line part of the station was amalgamated in 1933 with the deep-level lines as part of the newly-formed the LPTB. The arrival of the Piccadilly and Northern lines, as well as the growth of trams on the surface streets, led to a sharp reduction of services on the City Widened Lines. The SER, LCDR, and GNR services were withdrawn in 1907, and the Midland and LC&DR joint service in June the following year. The decreased passenger service allowed a growth in freight traffic through the station. During World War I the line was used for freight and troop movements with 250,000 tons of freight and 26,047 special troop trains passing through. Passenger service