London to Dover via Ashford services was refurbished and heavier rails were laid to allow for longer trains and increased freight. The 1973 tunnel plan was cancelled in 1975. The 1986 tunnel plan, which was approved and eventually built, used the same assumptions as the 1973 plan and Ashford Kent became Ashford International. By this time the Southern Region had been abolished. Until 1980 the Southern Region operated the Night Ferry sleeper train (jointly with SNCF) from London Victoria to Paris and Brussels. Competition with London Transport The Southern Railway and its predecessor companies have had little competition from London Transport south of the River Thames, where the subsoil was largely unsuitable for tunnelling and the mainline railways had extensive networks in place before the underground railways were developed. London Underground's services were advanced over Southern Region (and other) tracks, either through dual-running or by ceding BR tracks to LUL. The LUL service to Wimbledon for instance slowly replaced the former Southern Region service. Tramlink, however, took over the West Croydon to Wimbledon 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 the Privatisation of British Rail in 1994. Further Electrification The Southern Railway had adopted a plan to convert all lines east of Portsmouth to third rail electric traction in November 1946, to be completed by 1955. This plan would have included several branch and secondary lines that were subsequently closed such as the Bluebell and Steyning lines and also those secondary and branch lines in the area which were later dieselized such as the Marshlink and Oxted-Uckfield lines. This plan was, however, overtaken by the Transport Act 1947 which brought about the creation of British Railways. Kent Coast The first new scheme to be adopted by the Southern Region was implemented in two Phases. Phase 1: electrifying the former London Chatham and Dover routes between Gillingham, Ramsgate and Dover. Phase 2: reopening the former South Eastern Railway lines in Kent. Isle of Wight Owing to restricted clearances existing electric stock could not be used on the railways of the Isle of Wight. The surviving line between Ryde and Shanklin was therefore electrified in March 1967 using converted stock originally built for London Electric Railway in 1921. These became British Rail Classes 485 and 486. During the mid 1980s these