Moorgate station is a tube and mainline station in the City of London, located on Moorgate, the street of the same name, north of London Wall. It was at one time known as Moorgate Street station.

Moorgate station

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 is in Travelcard Zone 1.

The mainline station is served by Thameslink and West Anglia Great Northern; it is a terminus for these services. WAGN trains arrive at deep-level tube platforms via the Northern City Line route, formerly part of the Underground. Thameslink trains run into platforms just below street level, next to the Metropolitan Line.

Moorgate Control

Main article: Moorgate Control

On February 28, 1975 a Northern Line tube train (on the Northern City Line now used by WAGN) crashed into the tunnel end beyond the platform, killing 43 people, the greatest loss of life on the Underground in peacetime.

When investigated, the driver was shown to have still been holding the dead man's handle, a device that immediately applies the brakes when released. Not only had the driver not even put his hands up to protect his face from the impact, but he had actually increased the speed of the train. Police investigation showed that the driver had no reason to be suicidal, and in fact had £300 in his pocket which he was intending to use to buy a car for his daughter after the end of his shift.

The incident would have not been so bad had the train been in a tube-sized tunnel, as the other carriages would not have been able to rise above the first and land on top of it. Neither would this have been quite so bad had the platforms been those of the average tube station, for similar reasons. However, the train was a tube train, but the platform tunnels were designed for mainline trains which are much larger.

The crash had two results. Firstly, the southern end of the northern city line platforms (where the crash happened) was extensively rebuilt. Secondly, automatic systems for stopping trains at dead-ends, such as at these platforms, was introduced into all dead-ends on the Underground. These systems are known as Moorgate Control.

As for the incident itself, the cause was never determined.

External links

• BBC News account of the 1975 crash
• Nightmare on Platform Nine, an account 1975 crash by the North London Transport Society

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