After 40 years, passenger trains are once again travelling through the eastern Gasworks Tunnel to Kings Cross station. The ballast-less track was designed by VCE together with the executing company Rhomberg Sersa UK.
The East Coast Main Line connects Edinburgh in Scotland with the railway station King’s Cross in London. Directly before the terminal King’s Cross there are the three Gasworks Tunnels (West, Middle and East), which were built between 1852 and 1892. The tracks in the eastern tunnel were removed and closed in 1977.
Within the scope of a major modernization extensive construction measures were carried out at the East Coast Line and in particular in the area of the railway station King’s Cross. As part of it the eastern Gasworks Tunnel was equipped with two tracks and respective overhead power supply systems so that the railway station can now be reached by two additional tracks, which considerably increases the total capacity.
Due to the constricted space available in the existing tunnel the ballast-less system Slab Track Austria by the company. Porr using track base plates with a width of 2.12 metre was especially suitable. The route in the tunnel partly runs directly below a residential building which is why the track base plates were equipped with elastic mats at the bottom side for a mitigation of vibrations in this area. In the tunnel a transfer point with the system LVT was established as well.
