Circle line (London Underground) with the other London Underground sub-surface lines: the Hammersmith & City line from Hammersmith to just before Aldgate; the Metropolitan line from Baker Street to Aldgate; and the District line from Tower Hill station to Edgware Road station. The line is electrified with a four-rail DC system: a central conductor rail is energised at and a rail outside the running rail at , giving a potential difference of . The running rails are not electrified. Much of the double track railway from the Hammersmith terminus to Westbourne Park station is on a high brick viaduct. East of Westbourne Park the
Circle line (London Underground) the stations are shared with one or more of the three other sub-surface lines, namely the District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. On the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines combined, over 114 million passenger journeys were recorded in 2011/12. The first section became operational in 1863 when the Metropolitan Railway opened the world's first underground line between Paddington and with wooden carriages and steam locomotives. The same year a select committee report recommended an "inner circle" of lines connecting the London railway termini, and the Metropolitan District Railway (commonly known as the District Railway) was formed to build