place

Severn Tunnel rail accident

1991 disasters in the United KingdomAccidents and incidents involving British RailDecember 1991 events in the United KingdomEngland rail transport stubsRail accident stubs
Railway accidents in 1991Railway tunnel disastersTrain collisions in EnglandTrain collisions in WalesUse British English from February 2017

On 7 December 1991, two trains collided inside the Severn Tunnel, between England and Wales. There were no fatalities but 185 passengers were injured.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Severn Tunnel rail accident (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Severn Tunnel rail accident
Sudbrook Road,

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Severn Tunnel rail accidentContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.585277777778 ° E -2.7213888888889 °
placeShow on map

Address

Sudbrook Road

Sudbrook Road
NP26 5SU , Portskewett
Wales, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Share experience

Nearby Places

Second Severn Crossing
Second Severn Crossing

The Second Severn Crossing (Welsh: Ail Groesfan Hafren), officially named the Prince of Wales Bridge (Welsh: Pont Tywysog Cymru) since July 2018, is the M4 motorway bridge over the River Severn between England and Wales, opened in 1996 to supplement the traffic capacity of the Severn Bridge built in 1966. The bridge is operated by England's National Highways. It has a total length of 5,128 metres (16,824 ft). It is southwest of the Severn Bridge and because it is more closely in line with the rest of the M4, it reduces the length of the journey between England and Wales. The junctions at each end are designed for most traffic to use this crossing, and in order to use the old Severn Bridge, one has to leave the M4 at junction 21 and join the M48 near Aust or at junction 23 near Magor. The new crossing carries more traffic than the Severn Bridge, which is still in use. It is wider than the Severn Bridge, having three lanes and a narrow hard shoulder each way, compared to the two lanes, cycle path and narrow footpath of the original crossing. It is a cable-stayed bridge, whereas the Severn Bridge is a suspension bridge. The position of the bridge is close to that of the Severn Tunnel, which has carried the railway line beneath the river bed since 1886. Much of the estuary is mudflats at low tide, but at high tide these can be covered by as much as 14 metres (46 ft) of water. This presented the engineers with a constraint: packets of work were scheduled at low tide, and needed to be completed within the short windows allowed by the tides. The concession given to the consortium which financed, built and operate the bridge required them to take over the outstanding debt on the original Severn Bridge and to operate the two bridges as a single entity. Tolls were set annually by the government based on the previous year's change in the Retail Price Index. On the expiry of the concession in January 2018, the consortium was required to hand the bridge over to public ownership. The tolls on both bridges were subsequently scrapped in December 2018.