on the
Metropolitan line A great deal of the early work of the LTE was spent repairing and replacing stock and stations damaged during
World War II. LTE also oversaw the completion of the delayed
Central line expansion, which had been part of the 1935–40
New Works Programme begun by the LPTB. By 1949, the westbound extension to West Ruislip and the eastbound extension to Ongar was finished. The main priority of the BTC was to modernise its main-line railways and many of the uncompleted projects which were part of the New Works programme were postponed or shelved. These included plans to extend the
Bakerloo line to
Camberwell, and to extend the
Northern line to
Bushey Heath, linking up the separate branches terminating at
Edgware and
Mill Hill East in the process. However, this latter scheme (the Northern Heights) was never completed, as the protection of the countryside, under the newly created Green Belt plan, stopped residential building in this area and reduced passenger numbers would not justify the expenditure. The LTE completed the electrification of the outer sections of the Central line and the
Metropolitan line. On the Central line, steam locomotives were still operating between
Greenford and
West Ruislip in the west and between
Leytonstone and
Ongar in the east. Electrification to West Ruislip was completed in 1948, leading to the start of passenger trains, which did not require locomotive changes, on 21 November of that year. On the same day, electrification round the Fairlop loop in the east was completed. And from 25 September 1949, electric tube trains were in operation between
Loughton and
Epping. This left a steam shuttle service operating between
Epping and Ongar, which was not electrified until 18 November 1957. New trains were introduced on the line in 1959. The modernisation of the Metropolitan line, the final part of the New Works programme which had not been completed or scrapped, was finally given the go-ahead by the BTC in 1956. This consisted of electrification from
Rickmansworth to
Amersham and
Chesham, some station reconstruction and
quadruplication, and replacement of the rolling stock. Steam locomotives were fully withdrawn from the underground network on 9 September 1961. By the end of 1962, new
A stock trains had replaced all the pre-war stock on the Metropolitan line. The LTE started direct recruitment in Ireland and the
Caribbean in the 1950s. The LTE oversaw the elimination of
London's trams in 1952 and the
trolleybus system in 1962. In terms of bus transport, the
AEC Routemaster bus was first introduced in 1956. ==Abolition==