Independent. Built from Canal & River Trust's own published notices, with no affiliation to or endorsement by the Trust.
All closures / What fails / Tunnel
Tunnel
Too few unplanned closures of this kind in June to August 2026 and the same months a year earlier to tell a change from luck: 0 against 0. How this is tested.
- On record
- 5 notices since May 2025: 4 closures and 1 restriction
In force today
No closure of this kind is in force today.
By canal
3 canals have had a closure of this kind. A closure naming two canals counts on both.
| Canal | Closures |
|---|---|
| Regent's Canal | 3 |
| Llangollen Canal | 1 |
| Trent & Mersey Canal | 1 |
Every closure on record
Showing 4 closures and 1 restriction involving a tunnel.
Rank by
Population
Status
Duration
Cause
Asset affected
CRT reason
Region
What these figures mean
- Population
- Which closures a figure counts. All closures is everything; Unplanned closure drops the works CRT flags as its winter programme and any day outside the cruising season (the Friday nearest 15 March to the Sunday before the first Monday in November). Scheduled work CRT does not flag as winter works still counts here. CRT Planned closure is the flagged winter programme alone.
- Defensible duration
- The days between a closure's start and its reopening date, counted only where the dates allow it. A cancelled notice, or one whose reopening precedes its start, has no defensible duration and is in no total.
- Closure-days
- One day on which one closure was in force. Two closures on the same day are two closure-days; where the question is how long a canal was actually disrupted, overlapping notices are unioned into single intervals. They are counted from 1 May 2025, when this archive begins: a closure that started earlier adds only its days since then, though its own row shows its whole length. Every figure and chart counts only the days inside the Period chosen above them.
- In force
- A closure is in a Period, and a day is one a closure affected, if it was in force at any time that day, including the morning it reopened. Closure-days measure how long, so they count whole days and not the reopening day: a closure can be in a Period and add no closure-day to it.
Closures in force each month
closures active during the monthCanals ranked by the season's closures
share of the period's cruising-season days up to today — a closure somewhere on a long canal is likelier, and does not mean the canal was impassableclosures in force on the period's cruising-season days — a longer canal has more to go wrong onWhere
closure-days by regionclosures by regionA region with more canal has more to go wrong on, so these totals partly measure its size. Regions compared by length of canal are on the Reliability page.
What causes them
closure-days by causeclosures by causeCRT's reason
closure-days by the reason CRT filedclosures by the reason CRT filedWhat fails on a lock
closure-days by part — unplanned lock failures naming a partclosures by part — unplanned lock failures naming a partHow long they last
closures by full length, including any days before May 2025 — the bands are not equal in widthClosures
Maida Hill Tunnel Closed
Regent's CanalLondon and South East
7 days
From 29 April 2025
Reopened 6 May 2025
5 of them since this archive began on 1 May 2025
- Where
- Bridge 1, Warwick Avenue to Lock 3, Bypass Weir Kentish Town Lock
- CRT reason
- Information
- Cause
- Pollution
- Asset
- Tunnel
Further Update: Specialist contractors have started to empty the generator tanks and will continue overnight. Clean up of the canal is underway and the western portal has been skimmed today and booms still in place. We plan to start to draw the water through the tunnel tomorrow…
Latest of 3 CRT updates, 2 May 2025.
Ellesmere Tunnel, Ellesmere
Llangollen CanalWest Midlands
7 days
From 3 November 2025
Reopened 10 November 2025
- Where
- Ellesmere Tunnel
- CRT reason
- Inspections
- Cause
- Planned works
- Asset
- Tunnel
We are pleased to announce that the dive survey has been completed ahead of schedule, and both the navigation and towpath are now open at Ellesmere Tunnel.
Latest of 3 CRT updates, 10 November 2025.
Maida Hill Tunnel Closure
Regent's CanalLondon and South East
2 days
From 12 May 2025
Reopened 14 May 2025
- Where
- Bridge 1, Warwick Avenue to Lock 3, Bypass Weir Kentish Town Lock
- CRT reason
- Information
- Cause
- Pollution
- Asset
- Tunnel
Our team have confirmed that we've reopened the Maida Hill Tunnel. Thank you for your patience around this situation.
Latest of 5 CRT updates, 14 May 2025.
Harecastle Tunnel
Trent & Mersey CanalWest Midlands
2 days
From 8 October 2025
Reopened 10 October 2025
- Where
- Harecastle Tunnel
- CRT reason
- 3rd Party Works
- Cause
- Broke, cause not given
- Asset
- Tunnel
Please be advised that the Harecastle Tunnel has been closed with immediate effect and will remain closed to navigation until further notice. This decision has been made due to a fault with the landline at the South Portal, resulting in a complete loss of communication at that…
CRT's only update, 8 October 2025.
Navigation Closure - Regent's Canal, Islington Tunnel, Central London
Regent's CanalLondon and South East
2 days
From 8 September 2025
Ended 10 September 2025
Restriction, not a full closure
- Where
- Islington Tunnel
- CRT reason
- Inspections
- Cause
- Planned works
- Asset
- Tunnel
Islington Tunnel overnight stoppages on Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th September, between 7pm and 7am each day. We will have contractors working overnight within the tunnel on Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th September, undertaking a detailed scan of the tunnel lining. During this time it…
CRT's only update, 19 August 2025.
Showing the 5 longest of 5. Every row links to the notice CRT published.
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