Haymarket Tunnels

Location type

Tunnel

Name and dates

Haymarket Tunnels (1846-)

Description

This pair of double track tunnels is directly east of Haymarket station. The original tunnel is the northern one, the southern added during quadrupling and the addition of extra platforms at Haymarket. To the east is the Princes Street Gardens Cutting approach to Edinburgh Waverley.

The northern tunnel (992 yds) is on the 1846 extension of the 1842 Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway to meet the 1846 North British Railway at what became Edinburgh Waverley.

The southern (1,009 yds) is an 1890s tunnel, built after the Forth Bridge opened to handle the extra traffic as the line was progressively quadrupled.

The tunnels continue on the alignment of the railway to the west until a short distance before the eastern end where there is a gentle curve to be more northward to avoid the castle mount.

Both tunnels are the same length, 1040 yards. The southern tunnel has several air vents.

Unlike the Calton Tunnels, east of Edinburgh Waverley, both tunnels still carry a double track even with the alterations required for electrification.

Overhead was the northern end of Caledonian Railway's Morrison Street Goods and Edinburgh Princes Street [2nd] the same company's Edinburgh terminus.

Tags

Tunnel

Aliases

Haymarket Tunnel
08/05/2021