Southampton Tunnel
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Southampton Tunnel (alternatively known as the Southampton Civic Centre Tunnel) is a 528-yard railway tunnel that runs close to the
Civic Centre A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...
in the
centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...
of the
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
city of
Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
, in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The tunnel was constructed by the
Southampton and Dorchester Railway The Southampton and Dorchester Railway was an English railway company formed to join Southampton in Hampshire with Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester in Dorset, with hopes of forming part of a route from London to Exeter. It received Parliamentary au ...
to enable the
Southampton and Dorchester Railway The Southampton and Dorchester Railway was an English railway company formed to join Southampton in Hampshire with Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester in Dorset, with hopes of forming part of a route from London to Exeter. It received Parliamentary au ...
to pass through Southampton and join the
London and Southampton Railway The London and Southampton Railway was an early railway company between London and Southampton, in England. It opened in stages from 1838 to 1840 after a difficult construction period, but was commercially successful. On preparing to serve Port ...
. Southampton West End station, subsequently relocated and presently known as Southampton Central lies to the West of the Tunnel. The experienced civil engineer Samuel Morton Peto acted as contractor for the works with the majority of the tunnel being constructed using traditional
cut-and-cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...
techniques. Its route cut through that of the
Salisbury and Southampton Canal The Salisbury and Southampton Canal was intended to be a 13-mile long canal in southern England from Redbridge, now a western suburb of Southampton at the head of Southampton Water, to Salisbury connecting with the Andover Canal at a junction ...
, an incomplete project that had partially built an earlier tunnel; the presence of this earlier engineering work would negatively impact the project due to the prior disturbance of the ground. The tunnel suffered a collapse during construction, and subsequent movement of the structure delayed its opening until two months after that of the rest of the line, being finally opened to traffic for the first time during August 1847. Carrying a pair of tracks throughout its length, it has been periodically operated as a single-track only tunnel while remedial or improvement work was performed. Southampton Tunnel has been used by a variety of direct passenger services connecting the South Coast with
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and the North. In addition, the tunnel has facilitated large amounts of freight movement to and from the Southampton Container Terminal and the rest of the UK. During 2009–10, it was subject to extensive re-engineering works, successfully raising both its
loading gauge A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and ke ...
and maximum speed for container traffic.


Construction

During 1845, approval for the construction of a railway to serve
Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
, Ringwood,
Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...
and Dorchester was secured by an act of
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
. The
Southampton and Dorchester Railway The Southampton and Dorchester Railway was an English railway company formed to join Southampton in Hampshire with Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester in Dorset, with hopes of forming part of a route from London to Exeter. It received Parliamentary au ...
's line had been proposed either to start from a terminus close to the Royal Pier and be connected with the existing
London and Southampton Railway The London and Southampton Railway was an early railway company between London and Southampton, in England. It opened in stages from 1838 to 1840 after a difficult construction period, but was commercially successful. On preparing to serve Port ...
via a tramway, or to run to the north of the existing town via a cutting and a short tunnel. The Pier and Harbour Board objected to the seaward route despite it being favoured by the town council, and the northerley route was chosen when the line's bill finally passed through the parliamentary process.Castlemans Corkscrew, Volume 1, The Nineteenth Century, B L Jackson, Oakwood Press 2007 According to local historian Jake Simpkin, for the proposed railway to traverse the hill at Marlands, the construction of Southampton Tunnel was the only realistic choice, as a surface alignment would have severely impacted the planned development of parkland around Southampton. The tunnel had originally been proposed as being just in length, but during the parliamentary stages, to avoid compromising the towns plans to convert the Lamas Lands to parks, a longer tunnel of was agreed upon. The route selected for the new tunnel cut through that of the
Salisbury and Southampton Canal The Salisbury and Southampton Canal was intended to be a 13-mile long canal in southern England from Redbridge, now a western suburb of Southampton at the head of Southampton Water, to Salisbury connecting with the Andover Canal at a junction ...
tunnel, an earlier project that had been abandoned four decades before.The Bankrupt Canal, plate 11, Edwin Welsh, City Of Southampton 1966http://www.hantsfieldclub.org.uk/publications/hampshirestudies/digital/1970s/vol33/Course.pdf Early reports by the railway's engineer suggested it might be possible to use the canal tunnel in some way for the construction of the railway but by the time the bill for construction was placed before Parliament this idea had been rejected and a new alignment with a shorter tunnel was proposed. The
Southampton and Dorchester Railway The Southampton and Dorchester Railway was an English railway company formed to join Southampton in Hampshire with Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester in Dorset, with hopes of forming part of a route from London to Exeter. It received Parliamentary au ...
's railway's engineer was
William Moorsom ; Captain William Scarth Moorsom (1804–1863) was an English soldier and engineer. After assisting Robert Stephenson he created railway lines in England, Belgium, Germany and Ceylon. Early life and career Moorsom was born at Whitby into a milit ...
and the contractor for the construction of the line was Samuel
Morton Peto Sir Samuel Morton Peto, 1st Baronet (4 August 1809 – 13 November 1889) was an English entrepreneur, civil engineer and railway developer, and, for more than 20 years, a Member of Parliament (MP). A partner in the firm of Grissell and Peto, he ...
through his company Messrs Grissell and Peto. It was decided to construct the majority of the tunnel using the traditional
cut-and-cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...
method, with only a limited section (the portion running directly underneath the London Road) being actually bored out. Experienced miners from
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
were recruited for the project as their specialist skills were valued for the bored section. The pre-existing incomplete canal tunnel crossed the intended route of the new railway tunnel at an acute angle and a slightly lower level near their western ends. A contemporary scale cross-sectional drawing dated June 1847 shows that, close to the point at which the two tunnels met, the base of the canal tunnel was only slightly lower than that of the railway tunnel and that the level of the water it contained was at a similar level to the base of the new tunnel. The canal tunnel had itself proven difficult to construct, with various sections sinking or collapsing due to geological conditions, poor materials and improper supervision of the works. It became apparent that the canal works had compromised the ground considerably, and despite removal of a section of the older tunnel where it was crossed by the new structure, geological problems accentuated by heavy rain and hard frosts in 1846/47 plagued the railway tunnel's construction. Buildings in the vicinity of London Road (later Above Bar Street) suffered subsidence and there were concerns expressed about the state of the road.Castlemans Corkscrew, Volume 1, The Nineteenth Centuary, B L Jackson, Oakwood Press 2007 The specific alignments and levels of the two tunnels meant that water was able to accumulate beneath the level of the new structure and saturate the surrounding gravels and clays. Just prior to the railway tunnel's planning opening date, saturation of the ground around the area of old the canal tunnel was reported to be responsible for a collapse of a recently constructed 100 yard section at London Road on 23 April 1847. The collapse caused two bystanders to fall into the workings, but they were fortunately unhurt and able to walk out of the eastern entrance. Just over two weeks later, on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 May 1847, Captain Coddington, the Government Surveyor of Railway, was able to inspect the line for the Board of Trade. He spent two to three hours in the tunnel and reported that the recent collapse had been repaired and that he considered the tunnel to be "a very well executed work".Southampton's Railways, Bert Moody, Waterfront Publications 1991 However, on 30 May, before the route could be formally opened, a bulge in the brickwork of the tunnel revealed a 60-foot section had begun to sink and the tunnel needed further repairs. The
Southampton and Dorchester Railway The Southampton and Dorchester Railway was an English railway company formed to join Southampton in Hampshire with Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester in Dorset, with hopes of forming part of a route from London to Exeter. It received Parliamentary au ...
was officially opened in June 1847 but the Southampton Tunnel section was only able to be opened to traffic two months later when repairs had been completed. Whilst the tunnel alone was closed, passengers were conveyed to waiting trains at either side via specially-chartered buses. Following repairs Captain Coddington visited the site again with Moorsom the engineer and Peto the contractor and reported: As constructed, the tunnel was 528 yards (482.8m) long and when inspected after construction had a maximum of of earth above it. Originally brick lined throughout, the line within rose at a gradient of 1:396 from each end to a point inside the tunnel. Two workmen are recorded as having lost their lives during construction.


Operating history and services

The tunnel remained in use fulfilling its intended purpose until, in the 1960s, the invert (tunnel base) was found to be rising at one point. Following this and concerns over ground movements in the vicinity of the tunnel extensive remedial work was undertaken between November 1964 and March 1965, with single line working through the tunnel allowing traffic to continue. During this work the heading was reopened between the railway tunnel and the canal tunnel in 1965. This revealed that the brickwork within was still in good condition at that point, but that the tunnel was largely filled with rubble as reported in 1847. The remaining western section of the Canal Tunnel was drained and filled with flyash in the 1970s using shafts dug from the surface in order to stabilise the ground above. Between 1983 and 1985,
British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
decided to perform extensive engineering works to facilitate the movement of larger containers through Southampton Tunnel. As part of these works, the railway through the tunnel was again operated as a single line and a
narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard-gauge railway, standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum r ...
was constructed to convey mterials from the western end. As a result of this work three sections of the tunnel's interior were rebuilt with segmental steel linings, sealing off the canal tunnel heading again in the process. Presently, Southampton Tunnel is mostly used by trains on the
South West Main Line The South West Main Line (SWML) is a 143-mile (230 km) major railway line between Waterloo station in central London and Weymouth on the south coast of England. A predominantly passenger line, it serves many commuter areas including south we ...
from
London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of ...
to
Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...
and Weymouth, on the
Wessex Main Line The Wessex Main Line is the railway line from Bristol Temple Meads to Southampton Central. Diverging from this route is the Heart of Wessex Line from Westbury to Weymouth. The Wessex Main Line intersects the Reading to Taunton Line at and th ...
from
Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...
to
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, and for journeys on the local line from Portsmouth to Southampton. Additional journeys are made on the West Coastway Line from Southampton to
London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Q ...
via
Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...
, and on the
Cross Country services Cross Country services on the British rail network carry passengers between regions on routes avoiding London termini. History Background The world's first twin-track inter-urban passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and ...
from Bournemouth to various points in the north of England. The tunnel is signalled for reversible working (trains can travel in either direction on both lines) and controlled from the Eastleigh Area Signalling Centre. There is also extensive use for freight, the majority which is containers to and from the Southampton Container Terminal just to the west of Southampton Central.


Twenty-first century redevelopment

Between 27 December 2009 and 3 January 2010, the tunnel was temporarily closed while it underwent reengineering work and at other times it again operated with just one track in use. Inside the tunnel the track was lowered by laying the rails and their fixings directly onto a new concrete floor. This allowed the tunnel to meet the W10 (freight container) route clearance. Previously, Hi-Cube
intermodal container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different Mode of transport, modes of trans ...
traffic had to be carried on special low wagons with areas which could not be loaded, resulting in both traffic planning issues and lower train capacity. Additionally, all container trains were restricted to 20 mph when passing through the tunnel due to the limited clearances for the top edges of the loaded containers. Since rebuilding, no speed or loading restrictions apply to the tunnel and container trains can travel at up to the line speed of 40 mph, the upper limit for the tunnel; accordingly, container trains could be more easily run to and from the
Port of Southampton The Port of Southampton is a passenger and cargo port in the central part of the south coast of England. The modern era in the history of the Port of Southampton began when the first dock was inaugurated in 1843. The port has been owned and op ...
.
Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...
projected that the scheme would see 50,000 fewer lorries on the national road network due to the increased viability of freight services as a result of the wider scheme, which was reportedly costed at £71 million.


Film

Footage at the start of the film ''
Oh, Mr Porter! ''Oh, Mr Porter!'' is a 1937 British comedy film starring Will Hay with Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt and directed by Marcel Varnel. While not Hay's commercially most successful (although it grossed £500,000 at the box office – equal to a ...
'' features the tunnel at Southampton, filmed from the rear of the train and reversed for showing.


References

{{reflist


External links


Southampton Canal Society Southampton and Salisbury Canal Pages

Southampton Tunnel works finished a year early via networkrailmediacentre.co.uk
Rail transport in Hampshire History of Hampshire Railway tunnels in England Tunnels completed in 1847 Tunnels in Hampshire 1847 establishments in England