Less than four years after spending 拢7.2m to make Queensbury Tunnel safe for future reuse, National Highways has now decided simply to fill it in.
Closed in the 1950s, the 1.4-mile long Queensbury Tunnel is the focus of a campaign to reopen it as part of a greenway network connecting Bradford and Keighley to Halifax.
The planned West Yorkshire Mass Transit network also includes an option to route a future extension through Queensbury Tunnel to Halifax.
As manager of the Historical Railways Estate responsible for redundant rail structures, National Highways wants to abandon the Victorian structure to reduce liabilities. A planning application for the scheme has so far attracted more than 8,000 objections.
In October 2018, the state-owned roads company began a four-month programme of preparatory works costed at 拢550,000. However, the project rumbled on until October 2021, by when 拢7.2m had been spent. At that time, National Highways director Richard Marshall said: 鈥淥ur work strengthened the tunnel to prevent further uncontrolled collapses, ensuring that any future plans for the re-use of the structure can be realised.鈥�
Despite this, National Highways recently sought additional public funding to progress the infill scheme which roads ministers Lilian Greenwood has now authorised.
In a letter to the Queensbury Tunnel Society, the minister said that 鈥渢here are less costly greenway options which do not use the tunnel that can be delivered, and that these options would provide the same or similar active travel benefits to the local community but at a lower cost to the public purse鈥�.
But a study by transport campaign group Sustrans found Greenwood鈥檚 proposed route as 鈥渉ighly compromised鈥�, being both hilly and interfacing busy main roads. A route through the tunnel would be much shorter and flatter and more likely to attract users, it argued.
Norah McWilliam, leader of the Queensbury Tunnel Society, said: 鈥淭he government is making an investment in destruction to satisfy the needs of a roads body that only cares about its own narrow interests. Community aspirations to bring positive benefits from our fabulous historic asset mean nothing to these spreadsheet shufflers.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 go on like this, wasting public funds on projects that offer no value. These new millions and the seven lost in a black hole four years ago could have paid for the tunnel鈥檚 repair, safeguarding it for a role at the heart of an inspiring and sustainable active travel network - something Bradford and West Yorkshire could be proud of. It would attract people to visit and connect them with our magnificent landscapes 鈥� an uplifting experience bringing physical and mental health benefits. But instead we get nothing.鈥�
Graeme Bickerdike, who has led previous battles with National Highways over rail bridge infill schemes, is engineering coordinator for the Queensbury Tunnel Society. He said: 鈥淭he minister claims that her decision is based on a 鈥榝ull view of the facts鈥�, but the evidence seems to have come exclusively from National Highways which has a proven track record for exaggerating risk, misrepresenting condition evidence and frittering away public funds.
鈥淭here is no justification for another costly tunnel intervention at this time as the 2018-21 works have reduced what was already a low risk profile.
鈥淭housands of people recognise the importance of Queensbury Tunnel as an asset and support its repurposing. Many of them will see the minister鈥檚 decision as another example of perverse, out-of-touch decision-making from a government perceived as having nothing positive to offer. Yet again deprived communities, of which there are many locally, are overlooked.鈥�
The minister has agreed to meet representatives of the Queensbury Tunnel Society in London on 22nd July to hear their case.
National Highways said that while it would be filling the open shafts and providing support under the shafts, it would not be infilling or demolishing the tunnel.聽
Helene Rossiter, head of the Historical Railways Estate at National Highways, said: 鈥淔ollowing the government's decision on Queensbury Tunnel, we will begin the process to stabilise the tunnel safely and securely.鈥�
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