page_title: Farringdon station
section_title: Thameslink upgrade
hierarchical_section_title: Farringdon station / Current developments / Thameslink upgrade
caption_attribution_description: English: First Capital Connect EMU 319447 tails 319448 as it leaves Farringdon with a service from Luton to Sutton via Wimbledon. On the left are the old tracks towards Moorgate, which were disconnected to allow the platforms at Farringdon to be lengthened.
context_page_description: Farringdon is a London Underground and connected main line National Rail station in Clerkenwell, central London. The station is in the London Borough of Islington, just outside the boundary of the City of London. It was opened in 1863 as the terminus of the Metropolitan Railway, the first underground passenger railway and Farringdon is one of the oldest surviving underground railway stations in the world.
  Today the Underground station is served by the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines between King's Cross St Pancras and Barbican. The National Rail station is on the Thameslink route between St Pancras and City Thameslink, and is due to become an interchange station between Thameslink and the Crossrail programme which is due for completion in 2021.
context_section_description: Farringdon Station has been rebuilt to accommodate longer Thameslink trains and to make other improvements to the station. The existing station building has been refurbished with a new roof canopy covering the north end of all four platforms and a new entrance and concourse facing Turnmill Street. An additional ticket hall has been built on the south side of Cowcross Street providing access to the Thameslink platforms, which have been extended southwards underneath this building, allowing the station to handle 240 m (12-carriage) trains. Platforms have been widened to accommodate increased passenger numbers. This process required the bridge that formed Cowcross Street to be demolished and rebuilt. Cowcross Street is now pedestrianised. Lifts have been provided throughout.
  The existing listed ticket hall and concourse have been remodelled, for use by London Underground and Thameslink passengers. Interchange within the station has been improved by removing the interchange bridge and installing new stairs and lifts with access to all four platforms, allowing passengers with impaired mobility to use the station.
  It was necessary to build the Thameslink platform extensions to the south, since there is a sharp gradient to the immediate north of the station. This resulted in the two-station branch to Moorgate being permanently closed. The platform extensions cross the former Moorgate line and reach within a few metres of the entrance of the Snow Hill Tunnel. The alternative of realigning both the Thameslink and Circle/Hammersmith & City/Metropolitan lines was impractical as the latter crosses over the former on a bridge almost immediately to the north of the station.
caption: A Class 319 heads south from Farringdon. On the left is the blocked-off City Widened Line branch to Moorgate, closed as part of the Thameslink Programme.
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