The Wimbledon and Sutton Railway (W&SR) was a railway company established by an Act of Parliament in 1910 to build a railway line in Surrey (now south-west London) from Wimbledon to Sutton via Merton and Morden in the United Kingdom. The railway was promoted by local landowners hoping to increase the value of their land through its development for housing. It was initially planned that services on the railway would be operated by the London Underground's District Railway (DR) by an extension of its existing service from Wimbledon. Delays in finding the funding, opposition from the two mainline companies that the line was intended to connect, and World War I, led to the start of construction work being delayed until 1927. The line was completed and opened in January 1930, although the planned extension of the DR was not implemented and the service was provided by the Southern Railway. The opening of the line stimulated residential development as planned, but competition from the London Underground's City and South London Railway, which had its terminus at Morden, meant that the line did not achieve the hoped-for passenger numbers. Today the railway is part of the Sutton Loop Line from Streatham through Wimbledon to Sutton. History Background During the second half of the 19th century, the Surrey villages of Wimbledon and Sutton experienced rapid residential growth, stimulated by the railways running through their areas, with landowners in both areas profiting from the development of new suburban housing on their previously rural estates. Less accessible to the railways, the parishes of Merton and Morden, which lay between Wimbledon and Sutton, remained largely rural and, starting in the 1880s, a series of railway schemes were proposed to bring a new line through the area and increase the value of the land. Unsuccessful private bills were presented to Parliament in 1884, 1888, 1890 and 1891 seeking permission to construct a new railway between the London and South Western Railway's (L&SWR's) line through Wimbledon station to the north and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway's (LB&SCR's) Sutton station in the south. Establishment On 7 October 1908, engineer H. D. Searles-Wood and Sir George Smallman organised a meeting to consider a new plan for a Wimbledon to Sutton railway, and a committee was formed to promote the plan. A further meeting, held in 1909, included landowner William Innes, nephew of John Innes, the developer of Merton