Floriana’s epic tunnel

The tunnel beneath Floriana was a challenging engineering feat. This diagram is based on an 1880 drawing in the Archives of Malta showing the planned section through the railway tunnel and the entry into Valletta. The route shown takes the railway through the entirety of the historic landward fortifications and included one of the steepest gradients on the line. The position of Floriana station, the second underground, is shown here indicatively, it not appearing on the original drawing.