Campaigners’ anger after photographs emerge of Queensbury Tunnel works
PHOTOGRAPHS HAVE emerged showing the extent of controversial works in a Victorian railway tunnel which campaigners want to reopen as part of an active travel route.
Queensbury Tunnel would serve as a strategic link in the proposed Bradford-Halifax Greenway, linking two of West Yorkshire’s biggest conurbations. But National Highways, which manages the Historical Railways Estate of 3,100 disused railway structures on the
Department for Transport’s behalf, is seeking planning permission to partly infill the 144-year-old tunnel.
The photographs, taken late last year by three urban explorers, show the tunnel blocked in two places.
Graeme Bickerdike, Engineering Co-ordinator for the Queensbury Tunnel Society, said: “Invested stakeholders should not be discovering the extent of National Highways’ works through the adventures of urban explorers. There should be formal, structured records. Something quite disturbing seems to have gone on here, suggesting deep cultural problems and failings in oversight.”
National Highways head of Historical Railways Estate programme Hélène Rossiter said: “We have carried out vital interventions to keep Queensbury Tunnel safe while the Department for Transport (DfT), local authorities and West Yorkshire
Combined Authority consider how they might use it in the future.
“In recent months we’ve worked closely with DfT and stakeholders from across the heritage sector to identify where structures, including Queensbury Tunnel, could be used as part of active travel plans in the future.
“We’ll continue to support the repurposing of the structures we look after wherever there’s an opportunity to do so.”