Bigger Picture

Gasworks Tunnel.

GASWORKS Tunnel will be a familiar site to anyone who has stood at the country end of London King’s Cross station.

Opened (alongside the rest of the terminus) by the Great Northern Railway in 1852, the 528-yard (483-metre) tunnel was needed to bring the line beneath Regent’s Canal.

It was originally a single double-track bore, before two additional bores were constructed either side of the original tunnel in 1878 and 1892, to increase capacity at the station.

The tunnel has also been the site of a number of accidents over the years - most notably in February 1945, when a King’s CrossLeeds express service slipped on a newly laid section of track and rolled back into Platform 10, killing two passengers and injuring a further 25.

The eastern bore became disused in 1972-73, when its rails were lifted as part of a British

Rail scheme to rationalise trackwork in and around King’s Cross.

But after nearly five decades of being used as a haul road for maintenance vehicles and as a route for signalling cables from the adjacent King’s Cross power signal box, the bore is now being reinstated by Network Rail as part of its £ 237 million scheme to renew and remodel the station throat.

The project at King’s Cross forms part of NR’s £1.2bn East Coast Upgrade, which is designed to increase the number of high-speed long-distance paths between London and Doncaster from six to eight.

It is due for completion in time for the timetable change in December 2021.

NIGEL CHADWICK. Gasworks Tunnel took its name from the presence of the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company’s gasworks to the south of Regents Canal.

NETWORK RAIL. This shot, captured in February within the disused eastern bore, shows its unusual fully circular construction. It is currently scheduled to reopen to traffic in 2021 for the first time in nearly 50 years.

PAUL BIGLAND. The tunnel passes approximately 15 metres below Regent’s Canal and has a rising gradient at its northern end of 1-in-114.