Queensbury Tunnel | Cost of infilling disused Yorkshire rail tunnel now exceeds repair estimate
More money has been committed to the project to infill the Queensbury Tunnel than the estimated cost of a full repair, campaigners against its abandonment claim.
The Queensbury Tunnel Society claim that a full repair and restoration of the West Yorkshire railway tunnel for cyclists and walkers would have cost £6.9M.
Figures obtained by the Queensbury Tunnel Society show that £7.53M has so far been committed to the abandonment of the tunnel. With only 70% of preparatory work to infill the tunnel complete, the group claims that the final bill could top £10M.
DEPRESSED by the seemingly endless lack of progress on the Queensbury Tunnel project – Concern is voiced over tunnel study (Keighley News, January 28) – I asked the tunnel society why it hadn’t at least stepped-in to pay the peppercorn £50 per annum rent to keep operational the pump house benefitting the project. Part of its defensive reply was: “It is not the responsibility of a third party (ie the Queensbury Tunnel Society) to pay the rent owed by a multi-billion pound Government-owned company”. Maybe not, but a society ostensibly created to do all it can to keep the tunnel in good condition and to reopen it perversely chose to adopt a petty, tight-fisted, letter-of-the-law, not-our-problem-guv approach instead of acting positively to the tune of just £50 p/a to keep the tunnel pumped and their project viable.
CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save the historic Queensbury Tunnel from closure have raised concern over a £500,000 viability study, which they claim will be undertaken without engineers carrying out any inspections. The tunnel has been at the centre of a long-standing wrangle as the battle continues to bring it back into use as part of a new foot and cycle path. In July, the Government committed £1 million to two studies. The West Yorkshire Combined Authority, working with councils, is developing the business case for an active travel route connecting Bradford and Halifax via the tunnel, whilst Highways England is conducting a technical study into repair options for the structure and their associated costs.