Woodhead Tunnel, railway tunnels on the Woodhead Line, in Northern England
Woodhead Tunnel is a railway tunnel in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire that crosses beneath the Pennines. It measures over 3 km in length and remains one of the longest railway tunnels in the country.
The tunnel opened in 1852 as a single-track passage connecting Sheffield and Manchester by rail. A second parallel tunnel was constructed in 1868 to handle growing traffic demands.
The tunnel is not open to visitors as it remains an active railway route. You can view the tunnel entrances from the roads near the surrounding villages.
The tunnel was the site of the Great Pennine Rail Disaster in 1954, one of Britain's worst railway accidents. The crash led to improvements in safety standards across the country.
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