Moorgate

Moorgate was one of the old minor gates of the old London Wall surrounding the City of London, the historic and financial centre of Greater London in the United Kingdom. The name survives as the name of a major street in the heart of the City connecting it with Islington, and in the name of a mainline terminus and London Underground train station. Several major investment and commercial banks congregate in this area. There is a mixture of historic and contemporary office buildings, including Moorhouse, which was designed by Foster and Partners, and stands at the corner of Moorgate and London Wall.

Moorgate station

Moorgate station is a tube and mainline station located on Moorgate, the street of the same name. The tube station is on the Bank 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. The station was named at one time "Moorgate Street". The mainline station is served by Thameslink and WAGN. It is a terminus for suburban WAGN services to Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth.

Related Topics:
Tube - Mainline - Bank - Northern Line - Old Street - Circle - Hammersmith & City - Metropolitan - Barbican - Liverpool Street - Thameslink - WAGN - Welwyn Garden City - Letchworth

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Moorgate tube crash and control systems

On 28 February, 1975 a Northern Line tube train (on the Northern City Line service on short, 7-minute round trips between Drayton Park and Moorgate) terminating at Moorgate station crashed into a brick wall at the end of the tunnel beyond the platform, killing 43 people at the scene and several more subsequently from severe injuries, in what was the greatest loss of life on the tube in peacetime. The cause of the incident was never determined.

Related Topics:
28 February - 1975 - Northern Line - Northern City Line - Drayton Park

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The train was on the 8:39am run from Drayton Park, terminating at platform nine of Moorgate. Instead of stopping on arrival, the train appeared to accelerate, taking the crossover at about 35 mph (56 km/h). At the end of the platform was a 66 ft (20 m) long overrun tunnel with a red stop-lamp, then a sand drag, and finally a single hydraulic buffer in front of a brick wall. The sand drag slowed the train but it smashed into the buffer at about 40 mph and then into the wall.

Related Topics:
Mph - Km/h - Hydraulic buffer

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As the overrun tunnel was originally built to house mainline units and was 16 ft (4.9 m) high, the smaller diameter of the tube train meant that the second car in the set rode up above the trailing end of the driving car, as did the third car which split asunder lengthwise and rode over the end of the second car. The driving car suffered the most damage, buckling at two points into a V shape, crushed between the wall and the weight of the rest of its train piling up behind it.

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The cause of the crash was never satisfactorily determined. The driver, who had worked for London Underground since 1969, had been in good health, took no alcohol or drugs, and was considered an unlikely suicide candidate. Investigations confirmed the brakes had not been applied and the driver had not even raised his hands to protect his face at the moment of impact.

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After the incident, automatic systems for stopping trains at dead-ends was introduced into all dead-ends on the tube, regardless of whether the driver gives instruction to halt a train. These are known as "Moorgate control" systems.

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