Snow Hill Tunnel
| Snow Hill Tunnel | |
|---|---|
 Thameslink train leaving Blackfriars station shortly before entering the Snow Hill tunnel
|
|
| Official name | Snow Hill Tunnel |
| use | Railway tunnel , double track |
| place | City of London , London , England |
| Number of tubes | 1 |
| construction | |
| Client | London, Chatham and Dover Railway |
| business | |
| release | January 1, 1866 |
| Location of the Snow Hill Tunnel | |
 Map from 1889
|
|
| Coordinates | |
| North portal | 51 ° 31 ′ 10 ″ N , 0 ° 6 ′ 16 ″ W. |
| South portal | 51 ° 30 ′ 47 " N , 0 ° 6 ′ 13" W. |
Map with all coordinates: The Snow Hill Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the edge of the City of London between City Thameslink and Farringdon stations . It runs under the Smithfield Meat Market and was built in the lidded construction immediately before the market was built. The opening took place on January 1, 1866.
The tunnel was built as part of the Metropolitan Extension on behalf of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR) to connect their tracks on the Ludgate Viaduct with those of the Metropolitan Railway at Farringdon, which opened in 1863 . From 1868 the tunnel was connected to the Widened Lines , a parallel line to the Metropolitan Railway. These tracks were in turn connected in the northwest at King's Cross station with those of the Great Northern Railway , at St Pancras station with the tracks of the Midland Railway , via tunnels under the respective terminal stations. The Snow Hill Tunnel was thus the only rail link through the center of London and enabled several companies to offer through passenger and freight trains.
From 1871 the tunnel had an additional connection eastwards to the tracks of the Widened Lines, which also made it possible to operate the Aldersgate Street (now Barbican ) and Moorgate Street (now Moorgate ) stations. A siding also led from the connecting curve to a freight yard under Smithfield Market. Both the curve and the freight yard are no longer in operation.
A tunnel station called Snow Hill was opened in 1874. It enabled a transition to the adjoining terminal station Holborn Viaduct of the LC&DR. The station was closed in 1916, but freight trains continued to use the tunnel. During the First World War , the north-south connection through the Snow Hill Tunnel was an important supply route, especially for the British Expeditionary Force fighting in northern France . An average of 15 military trains ran every day. During the preparation of offensives, the number of trains rose to 210 daily. In 1951, 51 freight trains were still running south through the tunnel every day. The falling freight volume in the 1960s led to the tunnel being closed on March 23, 1969, and the tracks were removed in 1972.
In 1986, construction work began to restore the north-south connection as part of the Thameslink line . In 1990, operations were resumed on newly laid tracks. As part of the construction work for the new link, the Ludgate Viaduct and the Holborn Viaduct and Ludgate Hill stations were demolished and replaced with a new access tunnel to the Snow Hill Tunnel. To make way for the new tunnel, the west end of Ludgate Hill Street and the adjacent Ludgate Circus intersection have been raised a few feet .
literature
- HP White: Greater London. (= A regional history of the railways of Great Britain , Volume 3) Thomas, Nairn 1987, ISBN 0-946537-39-9 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Christian Wolmar: Fire & steam. A new history of the railways in Britain. Atlantic Books, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-84354-629-0 , p. 211.
- ^ White, Greater London. , P. 95.
