A tunnel is an underground passageway with no defined minimum length, though it may be considered to be at least twice as long as wide. Some government bodies define a tunnel as 150 metres (0.093mi) in length or longer.[1]
The longest tunnel in the United Kingdom is the Northern line at 27,800 metres (91,200ft). This will be superseded in the 2020s by the 37,600-metre (123,400ft)Woodsmith Mine Tunnel in North Yorkshire that will transport polyhalite from North Yorkshire to a port on Teesside.[2]Standedge Tunnel at 5,029 metres (3.125mi) is the longest canal tunnel in the United Kingdom. When completed in the late 2020s, the Chiltern tunnel will be the 2nd longest mainline railway tunnel in the UK at 16,040 metres (52,620ft).[3]
3-metre diameter, forced air cooling, 7 ventilation shafts, carries one 400kV circuit, provision for second circuit, battery powered overhead monorail system for access[28]
2005
Hertfordshire
Hatfield Tunnel
Road
1,147
1,531
Cut-and-cover tunnel on the A1(M) between J3 and J4
1986
Hertfordshire
Holmesdale Tunnel
Road
600
656
Cut-and-cover tunnel on the M25 between J25 and J26
1984
Hertfordshire
Northchurch Tunnels
Railway
319
349
Bores consist of Down and Up fast (double track), Down slow (single track), Up slow (single track)
1838
Hertfordshire
Ponsbourne Tunnel
Railway
2,454
2,684
Part of the Hertford Loop Line, it was the last tunnel constructed using traditional means
Built between 1819 and 1824 for the Thames and Medway Canal, single track railway laid on the tow-path in 1845, was soon doubled by infilling the canal, 100-yard air vent cut in the middle
Under Blue Bell Hill, tunnel is to UIC GB gauge on High Speed 1, double track but due to air pressure of opposing trains at high speeds trains are scheduled not to pass at the line speed of 300km/h.[35]
3 metres diameter, 10 metres below river Thames, terminating on the north bank of the river bed adjacent to St Paul's railway bridge, disused since 1981, now sealed
3 tunnels, 2 carrying cables under the Thames to either side of Chelsea bridge, third carrying steam and hot water pipes for a district heating system for the Churchill Gardens estate
The Victoria and Waterloo tunnels - 2,475 metres (2,707yd) and 862 metres (943yd) - form a single tunnel divided by an air shaft, and having different names on each side of the shaft
The Channel Tunnel, sometimes referred to informally as the Chunnel, is a 50.46-kilometre (31.35 mi) undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone with Coquelles beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. It is the only fixed link between the island of Great Britain and the European mainland. At its lowest point, it is 75 metres (246 ft) below the sea bed and 115 metres (377 ft) below sea level. At 37.9 kilometres (23.5 mi), it has the longest underwater section of any tunnel in the world and is the third-longest railway tunnel in the world. The speed limit for trains through the tunnel is 160 kilometres per hour (99 mph). The tunnel is owned and operated by Getlink, formerly Groupe Eurotunnel.
High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a 109.9-kilometre (68.3-mile) high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel.
St Pancras railway station, officially known since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a major central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus for Eurostar services from Belgium, France and the Netherlands to London. It provides East Midlands Railway services to Leicester, Corby, Derby, Sheffield and Nottingham on the Midland Main Line, Southeastern high-speed trains to Kent via Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International, and Thameslink cross-London services to Bedford, Cambridge, Peterborough, Brighton, Horsham and Gatwick Airport. It stands between the British Library, the Regent's Canal and London King's Cross railway station, with which it shares a London Underground station, King's Cross St Pancras.
Stratford International is a National Rail station in Stratford and a separate Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station nearby, located in East Village in London. Despite its name, no international services stop at the station; plans for it to be served by Eurostar trains never came to fruition. The National Rail platforms are served by Southeastern trains on the High Speed 1 route originating at London St Pancras International. On the DLR, it is a terminus – one of seven end-of-the-line termini – for local services via Canning Town and London City Airport.
The British Rail Class 92 is a dual-voltage electric locomotive, which can run on 25 kV AC from overhead wires or 750 V DC from a third rail. It was designed specifically to operate services through the Channel Tunnel between Great Britain and France. Eurotunnel indicates the Class 92 locomotive as the reference for other locomotives which railway undertakings might want to get certified for usage in the Channel tunnel.
The North Kent Line is a railway line which branches off the South East Main Line at St Johns junction west of Lewisham station in Greater London and runs to Rochester Bridge Junction near Strood, Medway where it links to the Chatham Main Line.
Gravesend railway station serves the town of Gravesend in north Kent, England. It is 23 miles 75 chains (38.5 km) down the line from London Charing Cross.
Ashford International railway station is a National Rail station in Ashford, Kent, England. It connects several railway lines, including High Speed 1 and the South Eastern Main Line. Services are operated by Southeastern and Southern.
Ebbsfleet International railway station is in Ebbsfleet Valley, Kent, 10 miles east of London, England, near Dartford and the Bluewater shopping centre to the west and Gravesend to the east. The station, part of the Thames Gateway urban regeneration project, is on the High Speed 1 (HS1) rail line, 400 metres south-west of Northfleet railway station, off the A2 trunk road, 5 mi (8.0 km) from its junction with the M25 motorway. It served as a primary park-and-rail service for the London 2012 Olympics.
Eurostar International Limited (EIL) is the railway company operating the international Eurostar train services between Paris, London, Amsterdam and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel. Eurostar was previously operated by three separate companies in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, but this structure was replaced by EIL as a new single management company on 1 September 2010. EIL is owned by Eurostar Group.
London and Continental Railways (LCR) is a property development company owned by the Government of the United Kingdom for developing former railway land. The company was originally established in 1994 as a private consortium to own European Passenger Services and build the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) under a contract agreed with the government.
The British Rail Class 395 Javelin is a dual-voltage electric multiple unit (EMU) passenger train built by Hitachi Rail as part of the Hitachi A-train AT300 family for high-speed commuter services on High Speed 1 and elsewhere on the South Eastern franchise. The whole fleet is operated by Southeastern.
Regional Eurostar was a planned Eurostar train service from Paris and Brussels to locations in the United Kingdom to the north and west of London.
London has an extensive and developed transport network which includes both public and private services. Journeys made by public transport systems account for 37% of London's journeys while private services accounted for 36% of journeys, walking 24% and cycling 2%,according to numbers from 2017. London's public transport network serves as the central hub for the United Kingdom in rail, air and road transport.
High-speed rail in the United Kingdom is provided on five upgraded railway lines running at top speeds of 125 mph (200 km/h) and one purpose-built high-speed line reaching 186 mph (300 km/h).
The Medway Viaducts are three bridges or viaducts that cross the River Medway between Cuxton and Borstal in north Kent, England. The two road bridges carry the M2 motorway carriageways. The other viaduct carries the High Speed 1 railway line linking London and the Channel Tunnel. All three bridges pass over the Medway Valley Line.
The North Downs Tunnel, also known as the Blue Bell Hill Tunnel, is a railway tunnel that carries High Speed 1 through the North Downs, at Blue Bell Hill near Maidstone in Kent, south-east England.
In Great Britain, the Sectional Appendix is a railway document compiled by Network Rail and is the official definition of railway infrastructure, giving a detailed description of all railway lines owned by Network Rail. It has traditionally been published in printed format, originally as a bound book and subsequently in loose-leaf format, for ease of updating.
The British Rail Class 373, known in France as the TGV TMST and branded by Eurostar as the Eurostar e300, is a French designed and Anglo-French built electric multiple unit train that was used for Eurostar international high-speed rail services from the United Kingdom to France and Belgium through the Channel Tunnel. Part of the TGV family, it was built with a smaller cross-section to fit the smaller loading gauge in Britain, was originally capable of operating on the UK third rail network, and has extensive fireproofing in case of fire in the tunnel. It is both the second longest—387 metres —and second fastest train in regular UK passenger service, operating at speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour (186 mph).
HS4Air is a proposal for a 140-kilometre (87 mi) high-speed railway line in the United Kingdom, put forward in 2018 by a British engineering consultancy, Expedition Engineering.
References
Notes
↑ "Design Manual for Roads and Bridges - CD 352 - Design of road tunnels". Standards for Highways. March 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2022. For the purposes of this document a road tunnel is defined as a subsurface highway structure enclosed for a length of 150m, or more, measured along the centre line of the soffit.
↑ Whipple, Tom (13 April 2019). "Colossal bore gets priest's blessing to dig a giant tunnel at Yorkshire Mine". The Times. No.72820. p.22. ISSN0140-0460.
↑ N'Kaoua, J; Pope, CW; Henson, DA. "A parametric study into the factors affecting the development and alleviation of micro-pressure waves in railway tunnels". The Fluid Engineering Centre. Mott MacDonald Ltd. CiteSeerX10.1.1.621.9034.
↑ Graham Martin, From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury (University of Kent at Canterbury, 1990) pages 225-231 ISBN0-904938-03-4
1 2 Calpcott, Kevin (10 August 2007). "Windsor Hill". Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. Archived from the original on 28 June 2009. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
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