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news
Campaigners at the entrance to the Queensbury Portal.jpgBradford Council agrees to consider Queensbury Tunnel bike route plans
Campaigners who are fighting to prevent a disused railway tunnel in West Yorkshire from being permanently closed and want to see it host a cycle path have received the unanimous backing of Bradford City Council.
It is hoped that the Queensbury Tunnel, which is 2,501 yards long and closed to rail traffic in 1956, can house part of a cycle route running from Bradford to Halifax.
The Historical Railways Estate, part of Highways England, wants to seal the tunnel, rendering it permanently unusable and insists it would cost £35 million to convert into a cycling facility.
The Queensbury Tunnel Society, which is trying to save it, put the cost at £2.8 million – less than a tenth as much.
Earlier this month, campaigners reportedly secured agreement from the Department for Transport (DfT) to pay them the £3 million set aside for closing the tunnel so long as Bradford City Council assumed responsibility for the tunnel.
> Queensbury Tunnel campaigners ‘close’ to cycle route deal
Councillor Andrew Senior, who represents the Queensbury Ward for the Conservative Party, tabled a motion asking the council to “engage with interested parties in exploring options for the tunnel, investigate the feasibility of taking on its ownership, [and] facilitate discussions with the Department for Transport, Highways England’s Historical Railways Estate and other funders.”
He told councillors: “The tunnel has been earmarked for an abandonment project involving blocking it all up with concrete at a likely cost of £3 million.
“If the Council was to allow this to happen, it would mean this marvellous piece of Bradford heritage would be lost forever.”
Speaking of the plans to run a cycle path through the tunnel, he said: “It will attract people from outside of the Bradford district to visit and, in a forward-thinking way, this project will create an income back to the Council.”
Another councillor on the Queensbury ward, Paul Cromie, who sits as an independent, said that adapting the tunnel to the new purpose would boost the local economy over the long term.
“We need to keep in mind the long-term effect the tunnel will have on the environment and the community,” he said.
“Sustrans estimates that, over the next 30 years, it will benefit to the tune of £37.6 million from a cycle network with the tunnel as its centrepiece. £3 will be returned for every £1 spent.”
The Labour-controlled council’s executive member for regeneration, planning and transport, councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, said that costings would need to be looked at due to the wildly divergent figures cited by each party.
“Queensbury Tunnel - we support in principle … it’s in line with our cycling strategy to expand key cycling networks across the district,” he said.
“The issue is trying to work out the accurate costs. Highways England’s is many, many millions; the Queensbury Tunnel Society – who’ve done fantastic work in raising awareness of the tunnel’s potential as an asset – their figure is a lot lower.”
Norah McWilliam, who heads the Queensbury Tunnel Society, said: “What the councillors’ support demonstrates is that this is not a party political issue.
“Everyone with their eyes open can see the sense in transforming our historic tunnel into a facility that will improve connectivity, benefit the environment and help in our battle against obesity, rather than pumping public money into a valueless abandonment scheme.
“We must look now to the council’s own structural investigations to ensure they deliver success, not excess. We have said from the outset that the only sustainable repair option for the tunnel is one that’s proportionate, pragmatic and developed by engineers with deep, specialist insight,” she added. “We don’t want to waste public money on ‘over-the-top’ repairs either.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 33 min 36 sec ago
Wait - I've got it! It's actually an accessible design - for cyclists without arms. Hey presto, you can be in the drops using only your feet!
- chrisonabike 37 min 26 sec ago
Why leave yourself open to the problem in the first place? No windows, no draughty windows.
- chrisonabike 39 min 15 sec ago
Yup - although as a more "distributed" / low cost kind of "good" (which the public purse pays towards) cycling will likely always be susceptible to...
- quiff 1 hour 46 min ago
I'm sure they'd ask Lime to do that too. Come and collect your bikes and my neighbour - they're in pieces.
- brooksby 1 hour 51 min ago
Ireland seems to have a lot of problems with their cycle lanes… Almost as many as England
- quiff 2 hours 11 min ago
Fair point - I was restricting myself to pedal bikes. As I've never spent that kind of money on anything though (mortgage doesn't count), it's kind...
- brooksby 3 hours 14 min ago
And finally: I wonder how many of the "more than 3,000" signatures on that petition are actually locals, who live or work there (and are not just...
- Doug_D 4 hours 49 min ago
Another book suggestion - I can highly recommend "Lost Summers and Half-Forgotten Afternoons: A Mint Sauce collection" - a beautifully presented...
- mdavidford 6 hours 40 min ago
I think you're missing an opportunity to pack even more tech into it - add accelerometers that can detect whether they're pedalling or stepping....
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48 comments
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.7722506,-1.8489716,3a,75y,50.04h,83.46t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1snWm2ZqQ8rmkuvxTbm_WEQQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3791325,-2.3625804,3a,75y,186.07h,97.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-LTwh0LW6mDHFXWJD7hGsQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Hope this works!
So how much did the tunnel cost to maintain when it was used by the railway?
The maintenance cost seems vital to judging whether it makes any sense or not, and surely that must already be known from it's previous incarnation?
Back to the subject. I used to live near Queensbury and my brother lives there. Comparing this tunnel to ones in places like Bath is chalk and cheese. Queensbury/ Bradford/ Halifax are NOT scenic.
No way would I ride to Queensbury to try out the tunnel as the roads are just so busy. These areas are clogged with traffic.Opening this route would quickly attract the vandals,fly tippers,become a dog toilet,etc.
Of course , never seen a traffic jam in Bath!
Queensbury:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.7722506,-1.8489716,3a,42.6y,52.38h,82.42t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1snWm2ZqQ8rmkuvxTbm_WEQQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Bath:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3791325,-2.3625804,3a,75y,186.07h,97.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-LTwh0LW6mDHFXWJD7hGsQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
It's easy to be selective, but to say that the Queensbury , Bradford and Halifax areas have no scenic merit is bollocks. As for fly tippers.. its a bike path accessible by bike, when did you last see a cargo bike emptying a load of asbestos waste in a back street?
The scenic merits of Bradford are usually found whilst looking away from Bradford.
So pretty much the same as any city anywhere in the world then?
Just re-read my earlier post... Sharples?! I'd blame autocorrect but is Sharples even a word/name? Answers to the usual address please...
(Ena) sharples used to run the Rovers Return in Coronation St. Probably named after the old Parish in Bolton
Good call - possibly a Corrie-related brainfart.
Anyhoo, I can't blame her for being the corrupt, concreting and tarmaccing dodgy Tory bastard whose legacy is generations of motons. That would be Marples.
Yeah those bloody chisel makers are rights bastards
(I only know the name cos I bought my son a set for college some years back)
In any case, what does it matter if the cost to fix this up over runs, because that never happens with roads ever right and yet the benefit ratio of most roads isn't even a thing, in fact I'd say that on top of the actual costs, most roads built for motorvehicles (that's every road ever in the last 100 years) actually have a negative impact financially due to it solely focussing on motorvehicle use.
You can also guarantee that the £3M filling in costs wouldn't be accurate either or the long term costs to ensure it's safe because it will continue to flood at the entrance and cause even more of a hazard if that happens.
They should demand to fins out what a true figure would be to fill in and ask for that money plus the ongoing maintenance to keep it safe (if filled in) money too.
I see the village idiot is getting confident in spouting his racism and shite like the thick twat that he is.
Back in your box you vile little cunt!
While I hope this 2.3km tunnel doesn't turn into a place for yoof or undesirables to congregate, looking at the location of it, it does look a little 'close to the suburbs and local main roads' for this to become a viable horror zone.
Because it's close to the 'burbs' it is a totally viable stretch of a commuter path into that part of the city. Maybe they should put solar powered automaticly closing gates on each end of it as well, closed from 10pm to 6am maybe?
Also thought it's no good for TT's, it is almost a quite unique 'parkrun' course.. there and back being nearly 5km.. and being flat and straight might offer one of the fastest courses in the land, I can see people being drawn to that.
Overall anything that stops this place being filled with concrete for the environmental cost alone, has to be a good thing.
Fixed that for you.
I believe while the idea in principle is excellent. In practise its probably just going to end up a tunnel for local thugs, drugged up prostitutes to hang about in. Steal bikes and other possessions from the odd brave sole who dares venture into it. The local Asian population predominantly don't ride cycles to work. Shame really great idea.
As long as no-one disturbs any bat roosts.
Bats are cool. Any animal you can catch rabies from in the UK is cool.
I think we're more at risk of rabies from you - any mention of multicultaralism seems to have you frothing at the mouth and rabid paranoia.
IMG_1390.JPG
https://scarfolk.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/rabies
IMG_1389.JPG
Seems pointless to me. Who wants to go to Bradford.
You misunderstand. It's for the people who want to leave Bradford.
Would you really want to cycle through 2.5km of rotten tunnel?
Having seen photos of the tunnel it needs a hell of a lot of money spending on it to get it to a condition that is fit and safe for public access and even then it's a maintenance liability for ever more for Bradford.
One end of the tunnel was at one point completely flooded. Some great photos of it here , here, and here. Mudguards...and an aqualung required.
£3m works out at just over £1300 per metre of tunnel, which doesn't seem enough to me especially if they have to 'spraycrete' the whole length.
I thought the quoted figure was very much on the optimistic side too
I thought the quoted figure was very much on the optimistic side too
Yet Valerie seems to think Birmingham has little chance with event hosting despite its proximity to the black country.
He really is an odious little turd isn't he?
Please forgive me if I’ve overlooked something obvious, but I fail to see the attraction of cycling in a hole in the ground that’s nearly a mile-and-a-half long.
Done properly, isn't that exactly the attaction?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85O0AqSrNzo
I watched until the bitter end - which came as a blessed relief. I’m sorry. Unless it’s done to avoid some hideous alternative - and even then I’m not sure - I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m claustrophobic.
Well, the Two Tunnels project outside Bath is incredibly popular, but perhaps most people aren't like you.
Fair enough.
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