year a pair of tunnels—the York Road Curve for southbound trains and the Hotel Curve for northbound trains—were built, joining the GNR lines north of King's Cross mainline with the Metropolitan's line at King's Cross Metropolitan. The GWR ran the first trains on the line, but relations towards the Metropolitan quickly became strained and the GWR withdrew from the route in August 1863. The Metropolitan was able to continue operating by leasing rolling stock from the GNR, which it brought on to the line through the York Road tunnel. The GNR started routing all its suburban trains through the tunnels to Farringdon Street (now Farringdon) station in October. Trains into London stopped at a new platform known as King's Cross York Road to the north east of the mainline station, and again at the Metropolitan station, while trains out of London stopped at the Metropolitan station, and again at the mainline station, by reversing into a platform after exiting the Hotel Curve. In 1866 the Snow Hill tunnel was opened, joining the Metropolitan Railway at Farringdon Street to the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) terminus at Ludgate Hill. This allowed goods and passenger trains to run from the GNR lines south through to Herne Hill and beyond. The lines became very congested, leading to the opening in 1868 of a new pair of lines known as the City Widened Lines. These ran alongside the original tracks from King's Cross through to Moorgate, and allowed GNR and Metropolitan traffic to run along the line simultaneously. The same year the Metropolitan built a pair of tunnels to the Midland Railway tracks north of its new terminus at St Pancras station. This enabled the Midland to begin running a service from Bedford through to Moorgate. The Midland tunnels as well as the original York Road and Hotel Curve tunnels from King's Cross mainline station were connected to the City Widened Lines, while the link to the original Metropolitan lines was removed. The original Metropolitan tracks became part of the Inner Circle (later known as the Circle line), which ran partly on Metropolitan tracks and partly on District Railway tracks. The line was completed in 1884. Services were provided by both the Metropolitan, which ran the clockwise trains and the District, which ran anticlockwise. The route through King's Cross Metropolitan remained busy throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century, with trains from five