Google Street View Moorgate
station
View Larger Map
Location: Moorgate
 |
| Entrance to Moorgate |
Managed by: London Underground
Station code: MOG
Number of platforms: 10 (8 in use)
Moorgate station
Moorgate station is a central London railway terminus and London Underground station on Moorgate in the City of London, providing National Rail services by First Capital Connect for Hertford, Welwyn Garden
City and Letchworth and also serving the Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan Lines and the Bank branch of the Northern Line. It was the terminus for the Moorgate branch of the Thameslink line until March 2009 and was the site of the Moorgate tube crash of 1975 when 43 people were killed and 74 were injured.
History of Moorgate station:
The station was opened by the Metropolitan Railway in December 1865 when they extended their original route between Paddington and Farringdon.
 |
| Moorgate station |
Increasing traffic by other companies, including goods traffic, led to the track between King's Cross and Moorgate being widened to four tracks in 1868; the route was called the 'City Widened Lines'. Suburban services from the Midland Railway via Kentish Town and the Great Northern Railway via Kings Cross. British Rail services to Moorgate were initially steam operated before being converted to Cravens-built diesel multiple units and British Rail Class 31 locomotives class hauling non-corridor stock which remained in operation until the mid-1970s.
The Northern line platforms were opened by the City & South London Railway (C&SLR) as "Moorgate Street" in February 1900 and formed the northern terminus of its services from Stockwell south of the River Thames. The line was extended to Angel the following year.
The Northern City Line to Moorgate was opened by the Great Northern & City Railway (GN&CR) in February 1904 offering a service to Finsbury Park. The route was constructed in tube tunnels, but they were constructed at a diameter capable of accommodating main line trains (in contrast to the majority of London tube tunels which are much smaller). However the planned through services to the Great Northern Railway's main line were never implemented, and the route remained a simple short route between Moorgate and Finsbury Park, later cut back to run between Moorgate and Drayton Park only due to Victoria Line construction in the 1960s.
Moorgate station was completely modernised at platform level and street level in the 1960s, and the Widened Lines part of the station was extended to six platforms.
43 people were killed and 74 seriously injured in the Moorgate tube crash on 28 February 1975 when a southbound Northern City Line train crashed into buffers at the end of the line at the station inside a tunnel beyond the platform. It was the greatest loss of life on the Underground during peacetime and the worst ever train accident on the system.
British Rail took over control of the Northern City Line from London Underground in 1975, as part of the Great Northern lines suburban electrification. The Highbury Branch of the Northern line was terminated. Services from Finsbury Park to Moorgate were diverted to the Northern City Line from the City Widened Lines the following year. The City Widened Lines were renamed the Moorgate line[6] when overhead electrification was installed in 1982, allowing the Midland City Line service to run from Bedford via the Midland Main Line to Moorgate on the Thameslink service. The Moorgate Thameslink branch closed permanently in December 2009 as part of the £6billion Thameslink programme, however as of late August 2012, there is still a sign over Platform 2 with 'Trains to Bedford' and an arrow pointing to the now disused platforms.......Wikipedia >>
