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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.
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48 comments
Marvel at the graffiti?
quite a pleasant way of cooling down on a hot day. Try the tunnels on the Tissington Trail and the Monsal Trail - quite nice.
That is genius.
So, tunnels are useful because on two days a year in the UK and when it's hot you can ride through one and cool down?
yes. You'll have to drive there pretty quickly though before the sun goes behind a cloud.
The Monsal Trail, particularly the tunnels, is great.
Haven't tried the Two Tunnels near Bath yet but it's on my 'To Do' list.
The appeal I imagine is being able to cycle between two towns/cities without going over some massive f off hill. Also car free. The monsal trail in the peak district seemed pretty popular when I was there and features quite a few tunnels.
Not justification for building a tunnel, but sufficient to justify using one that's already there.
Oh God ... that picture. Like the cover of an Enid Blyton book.
Government mandarins these days only give out money to community projects with a heavy focus on 'diversity'.
Forget your tunnel ...
You do confuse me at times with some of your comments. What on earth has a street dance troop got to do with a tunnel in Yorkshire?
That's it!
Rename it 'Diversity Tunnel', get Bradford's yoof to paint some multiculti murals on the inside ... and then the project will win some funding.
quite a good idea. It might also help to get people who are not white and middle class to feel more welcome in the countryside.
Valbrona - for the sake of your blood pressure, and the sake of everyone else on here, I suggest you leave this site and go back to reading the Daily Mail.
Although as a troll I would have thought the idea of lurking underground would appeal?
... because Valbrona already performs the job of an old bore?
Enid Blyton books certainly didn't do very well on diversity. Better at sexism and racism.
Maybe they are your kind of thing Valbrona.
While I am glad it is not being turned into another road, I cannot help but be dismayed that another rail line is disused.
Am I the only one that would rather see them refurbished to allow people to ditch their car for longer commutes?
Tons of rail lines were ripped up many decades ago.
I don't believe they are currently a better option than personal transport, so making them railways again would be a step backwards. Turning them into viable links for pedestrians and cyclists is a step forward.
I also don't believe HS2 was a good use of public money for the benefit of the average commuter. However, had those billions been spent on proper cycling infrastructure...
I think a mix... It would be unrealistic to turn all the Beeching lines back, but there's a horribly disused rail-cum-shared use path near me, that I don't use because it's permanently mud.
If the train line was still there, I could get directly to my place of work with a train journey of a few stops and a 5 minute walk at either end. As it is, to take the train, I have to get into Warrington town centre, to travel into Manchester, to travel out again. It is insane. I don't want to travel into Manchester or Warrington; Warrington and Manchester don't want me travelling into Warrington or Manchester, but there is no other way. So, most of the time I ride a bike, and avoid Warrington and Manchester. Occasionally I get the train(s), via Warrington and Manchester. Somewhere between the two frequencies, I drive.
Loads of people do similar journeys - into towns and cities, to travel out again. And loads more think 'sod that' and take the car onto roads that at least resemble something like a straight-ish line between two points. If you look at some of the Beeching lines criss-crossing the country, their removal explains perfectly the hideous state of road traffic on roads running near them, to me.
Train lines, like *proper* cycling infrastructure, and roads, are in the 'if you build (and maintain) it, they will come' category. Unfortunately, whenever bike and train infrastructure investment is discussed, the 'return' on that is never far from the agenda. I haven't noticed a similar clamour for return on roads, which don't exactly pay for themselves either.
Beeching, Sharples, and anyone else involved in one of the most petty, corrupt and self-destructive episodes in modern UK history, should be annually dug up and hung for treason.
Tell them it's a bypass and watch the money flow in.
Closing this tunnel is akin to the ridiculous decisions made in the mid 20th century to close canals to navigation. We all understand that the tunnel won't be used for what it was intended, but that doesn't mean it no longer has a use.
Outside Bolton, the council blew up a perfectly good canal aqueduct (Damside Aqueduct) that had stood there for almost 200 years. With dynamite. All because it dripped water onto the road, which turned into ice.
And not far from where I grew up, British Rail wanted to demolish the Outwood Viaduct because it was in dangerous condition. Thankfully, it was restored instead, and now forms part of a very well used walking/cycling/riding link from Radcliffe to Salford.
These short-sighted attitudes of "it'll cost too much and we don't need it any more" need to be shown for what they are.
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