Moorgate station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Image:Moorgate Nameboard.png | |||
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | |||
| Place | Moorgate | ||
| Local authority | City of London | ||
| Operations | |||
| Managed by | London Underground | ||
| Platforms in use | 10 | ||
| National Rail | |||
| Station code | ZMG | ||
| Annual entry/exit | 7.135 million * | ||
| Transport for London | |||
| Zone | 1 | ||
| Annual entry/exit | 16.433 million † | ||
| History | |||
| Key dates | Opened 1865 (MR) Opened 1901 (C&SLR) Opened 1904 (GN&CR) | ||
| Transport for London List of London stations: Underground | National Rail | |||
| † Data from Transport for London [1] | |||
| * based on sales of tickets in 2004/05 financial year which end or originate at this station. Disclaimer (PDF) | |||
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Moorgate station is a London Underground and National Rail station in the City of London, on Moorgate, north of London Wall. At one time the station was named "Moorgate Street". It is a terminus for suburban First Capital Connect services from Hertford, Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth, and, during peak hours, trains on the Thameslink line, also run by First Capital Connect. It is the site of the Moorgate tube crash of 1975 in which 46 people were killed and 74 were injured.<ref>History A Time Line for Policing the Railways</ref>
The Underground station is on the Bank branch of the Northern Line between Old Street and Bank and also on the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, between Barbican and Liverpool Street.
Moorgate temporarily became the terminus for the Metropolitan Line in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 London bombings when the line between Moorgate and Aldgate was closed off.
Contents |
[edit] Sub-surface platforms
The Circle Line, Hammersmith & City Line, Metropolitan Line and First Capital Connect's Thameslink platforms are in a cut and cover section. When the line from King's Cross was quadrupled, the new route from there to Moorgate became known as the Widened Lines.
Peak-hour First Capital Connect trains on the Thameslink service from Bedford and Luton terminate here using platforms 5 & 6, parallel to the the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan platforms 1 & 2 (through platforms) and 3 & 4 (bays). The Underground lines are electrified on the standard LUL four rail system, the Thameslink bays using 25 kV AC overhead.
Completely rebuilt and extended to six platforms in the 1960s, the sub-surface part of the station was opened by the Metropolitan Railway in December 1865 as the first extension from its original route between Paddington and Farringdon.
Under the Thameslink 2000 plan, the platforms at Farringdon will be extended at the southern end of the station to accommodate 12 carriage trains. The proximity of Farringdon Junction to the station itself means that the extended platforms will be over the junction. As a consequence, the junction will be removed, leaving only the route through the Snow Hill tunnel, with the Moorgate branch closed.
The British Rail services to Moorgate along this route were originally steam operated, then operated by class 31s until the mid 1970s. Services went to both London Midland Region destinations (along the Midland Main Line) and to Eastern Region destinations (via the York Road/Hotel Curve to join the East Coast Main Line at King's Cross). The ER connections were removed when the deep level line (see below) transferred to British Rail and became the sole route for Eastern Region trains. All four bay platforms may have been used by British Rail services until this time.
The LMR trains were withdrawn circa 1979, but the line was reopened around 1983 when the class 317 BedPan units were introduced; services again worked via Barbican, Farringdon, and King's Cross Midland City to Kentish Town and stations north to Luton and Bedford. King's Cross Midland City was renamed King's Cross Thameslink with the introduction of the Thameslink services via the Snow Hill tunnel.
[edit] Deep-level platforms
The Northern Line platforms were opened by the City & South London Railway (C&SLR) as "Moorgate Street" in February 1900 as the northern terminus of its services from Stockwell south of the River Thames. The line was extended to Angel the following year. The original C&SLR station building remains on the west side of Moorgate and the offices above the station were built as the headquarters of the railway. These trains serve platforms 7 & 8.
Directly below those lines are the Northern City Line platforms 9 & 10, now served by First Capital Connect (previously West Anglia Great Northern). The platforms are located aboved those of the Northern Line on the London Underground. The Northern City Line platforms were opened by the Great Northern & City Railway (GN&CR) in February 1904 providing a service to Finsbury Park. The original hope of the GN&CR was that main line trains would run from the Great Northern Railway's platforms at Finsbury Park directly into the city and the tunnels were constructed at a diameter capable of accommodating main line trains. Disputes and rivalry between the two companies meant that this did not happen and it was not until the 1970s, after the line had changed from the ownership of London Underground to British Rail, that a through service began to operate - prior to then, services ran from Moorgate to subirban stations on the East Coast Main Line via the Widened Lines and the York Road Curve/Hotel Curve.
From 1934 until 1975 the Northern Line operated the Northern City Line as its City or Highbury Branch. On 28 February 1975, shortly before ownership changed, a southbound train crashed into the tunnel end wall beyond the platform, killing 43 people, the second greatest loss of life on the Underground in peacetime. Safety improvements since then have included the introduction of what is known as Moorgate Control - see Moorgate tube crash.
On National Rail live departure boards the code for the former Thameslink services is MOG and for the former WAGN services it is ZMG. Both display the full live departure board for both sets of services.
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive Moorgate station building in 1915.
- Train times and station information for Moorgate station from National Rail
- Street map and aerial photo of Moorgate station from Multimap.com
| Preceding station | Underground Lines | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old Street | Northern Line (City branch) | Bank | ||
| Barbican | Circle Line | Liverpool Street | ||
| Hammersmith & City Line | ||||
| Metropolitan Line | ||||
| National Rail | ||||
| Barbican (Eastbound services only) | First Capital Connect Thameslink Peak hours only | Terminus | ||
| Old Street | First Capital Connect Northern City Line | Terminus | ||
| Railway stations of London Central area | Greater London |
|---|
| Managed by Network Rail: Cannon Street • Charing Cross • Euston • Fenchurch Street • King's Cross • Liverpool Street • London Bridge • Paddington • Victoria • Waterloo |
| Managed by train operator: Blackfriars • Marylebone • Moorgate • St Pancras |
