 The DR began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond.On 1 October 1877, the Metropolitan Railway (MR, now the Metropolitan line) restarted the former GWR service to Richmond via Grove Road station.The DR route from Richmond to central London via Hammersmith was more direct than those of the NLR via , of the L&SWR and the MR via Grove Road station and of the L&SWR via Clapham Junction to Waterloo.