Campaigners hoping to revitalise a disused railway tunnel as part of an ambitious active travel network say that public money earmarked by the government to abandon the structure could substantially pay for its repair.
Queensbury Tunnel in West Yorkshire has been at the centre of a decade-long dispute between custodian National Highways (NH) – which wants to rid itself and the Department for Transport (DfT) of liabilities presented by the Victorian feat – and locals who believe any taxpayer funding should deliver meaningful public benefit. They want the tunnel reopened as part of a greenway linking Bradford and Keighley with Halifax.
In 2016, the state-owned roads company decided to infill seven shafts and short sections at both ends of the 1.4-mile long passageway, and has since applied for planning permission. But the Conservative government ruled this out, insisting that the structure should be retained as a future transport asset. This resulted in £7.3M being spent on strengthening works between 2018 and 2021.
However, civil servants from NH and the DfT have recently convinced Labour’s Lilian Greenwood MP, Minister for the Future of Roads, to spend a further £7.5M putting the structure permanently beyond use.
According to Jacobs, a consultancy firm working for National Highways, it would cost £22.3M to spray 60% of the tunnel with concrete and carry out other works, allowing it to become the active travel network’s key cross-district connector and avoid a surface path that would include 500 feet of climbing. But stakeholders have ruled this out as unaffordable.
AECOM, a respected infrastructure company commissioned by Bradford Council, developed a more proportionate repair scheme in 2018, at a cost of just £6.9M. Campaigners have updated this figure to take account of inflation and the subsequent strengthening works. They believe the structure could now be made ‘greenway ready’ for £8.7M.
“It’s all about culture”, says Graeme Bickerdike, Engineering Coordinator for the Queensbury Tunnel Society (QTS). “Most engineers take a sympathetic approach to the repair of legacy structures, using concrete only where necessary. Doing so here would protect the heritage value of the tunnel – an important factor in attracting leisure users and tourists.
“The work we’ve done suggests that, if spent wisely, the money to be wasted on abandonment would largely cover the tunnel’s refurbishment. That would ensure the taxpayer could eventually see a return on its investment through the social and economic benefits offered by the proposed active travel network.
“Using the new cost, those benefits amount to around £4 for every £1 spent, representing very high value for money. Abandonment offers no public value, serving only a handful of civil servants who see the tunnel as a blot on their spreadsheets.”
Last month, QTS launched a CrowdJustice appeal to fund the pre-action stage of a judicial review, in an effort to determine whether there are ground to challenge the Minister’s decision. The target of £6,500 was raised in less than three days, with a further £3,000 donated since. The legal work has been delayed by the Department for Transport failing to respond substantively to a request for formal supporting evidence within the identified deadline.
More general information on the campaign is available from Queensbury Tunnel Society: