Wapping Tunnel
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Wapping Tunnel is 2030 m long, and runs downhill from the Crown Street Station goods yard to Park Lane Goods Station, in Liverpool, England. It was constructed to enable goods services to operate between Liverpool docks and Manchester as part of the planned Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The original proposal for the railway ran north along the docks out of Liverpool, but this route proved very unpopular with local landowners, and the new route required considerable engineering works, including this tunnel. At 1 in 48 gradient, it was much too steep for the steam locomotives of the day, and so a stationary steam engine was installed at Edge Hill in part of the Moorish Arch to rope haul goods wagons up from the dock, where they were then connected to locomotives for the onward journey to Manchester. The tunnel opened in 1830 and closed on May 15 1972. The docks entrance to the tunnel is clearly visible on Kings Dock Road in Wapping, Liverpool. The Edge Hill entrance is still open to the air, but not accessible to the public. It is the central of three arches at the Western end of the cutting, with the right hand arch giving on to the tunnel to Crown Street Station and the left hand being purely for architectural symmetry!
In the 1970s, during planning work for the Merseyrail underground in Liverpool city centre, it was proposed to use part of the Wapping Tunnel to connect Liverpool Central and Edge Hill stations. This would have permitted Merseyrail electric services to operate to Huyton and St Helens. This plan was later revised to use the Waterloo Tunnel, before being dropped altogether. However, on 17 July 2006, local media reports suggested that Merseytravel was once again considering the scheme, using the Wapping Tunnel. [1]
