Moorgate station Totally Explained

Everything about Moorgate Tube Station totally explained

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.
The Underground station is on the City 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.

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 City 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 Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan platforms 1 & 2 (through platforms) and 3 & 4 (bays). The Underground lines are electrified on the standard London Underground 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, the Widened Lines following in 1868.
   Under the Thameslink Programme the platforms at Farringdon would 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 Cravens-built diesel multiple units, and class 31s hauling non-corridor stock, until the mid 1970s. Services went to both London Midland Region (LMR) destinations (along the Midland Main Line) and to Eastern Region (ER) destinations (via the York Road Curve/Hotel Curve to join the East Coast Main Line (ECML) at King's Cross). The LMR trains along the Midland Main Line were withdrawn circa 1979, but the line was electrified and reopened around 1983. The ECML connections were removed when the deep level line (see below) transferred to British Rail and became the sole route for ER trains. All four bay platforms may have been used by British Rail services until this time.

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 above those lines are the Northern City Line platforms 9 & 10, now served by First Capital Connect. 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 didn't happen and it wasn't until the 1970s, after the line had changed from the ownership of London Underground to British Rail, that a through service began to operate replacing the Eastern Region services that had previously run via the Widened Lines.
   From 1934 until 1975 the Northern line operated the Northern City Line as its Highbury Branch. On 28 February 1975 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.
   There was at one point a plan to extend the Northern City Line line south to a new station at Lothbury tube station, or even to connect it to the Waterloo and City Line at Bank station.

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