It was only train driver vigilance and a measure of good luck that prevented a serious rail accident on Network Rail’s Northern City Line tunnel between Old Street and Essex Road stations in London on March 8th 2013. A driver reported seeing water pouring through the roof of the tunnel as he passed through. Then a second driver, who was sent with an out-ofservice train to investigate, found a pile boring bit and debris on the tracks. The incident was caused by piling from a building site 13m above the tunnel puncturing the tunnel lining.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) published its report
on 14th February 2014 – eleven months after the incident. The investigation found that no one knew about the tunnel beneath the site. The tunnel route is not shown on OSMasterMap or historical OS mapping. The presence of a tunnel is hinted-at, somewhat cryptically in the registered title for the site, which states: “So much of the sub-soil as was vested in the Great Northern and City Railway is excluded from the registration”.
The tunnel is owned by Network Rail, but because the developer was not aware of its presence, a search had not been requested. The local authority also failed to pick up the presence of the underground railway during the planning application process for the same reasons. Concerning mapping, some, but not all railway tunnels are shown on OS mapping. The report does not make a recommendation concerning this apparent inconsistency but instead recommends that railway infrastructure owners should publish information concerning railways that are not shown on OS maps.
You can read more at
http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/reports_2014/report032014.cfm
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