CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save a historic railway tunnel from closure have raised concerns over a £500,000 viability study.

The Queensbury Tunnel Society, which wants the Victorian structure to be reopened to form the centrepiece of a cycle path network connecting Halifax to Bradford and Keighley, says the study will be undertaken without engineers carrying out any inspections.

The group says floodwater has accumulated through the southern half of the 1.4-mile-long tunnel due to Highways England failing to pay a £50 annual rent on a pumping station – resulting in it being switched off – and that it has “consistently suggested that the water will be causing the masonry lining to deteriorate, jeopardising prospects for reopening”.

Graeme Bickerdike, engineering co-ordinator for the society, claimed the landowner’s offer to enter into “positive dialogue” over the pump situation was ignored and that there was now a “farcical situation” of a desktop study from old reports. He added: “The Government promised a study that would offer a definitive view of what’s required, helping to ‘build a consensus around the findings’. But how can anyone have confidence in the results of expensive guesswork?”

A Highways England spokesman said: “We have continued to carry out inspections of the areas that we can safely access inside Queensbury Tunnel – including detailed examinations along its length, surveys from the northern entrance to beyond shaft two and inspections along the dry sections. Our technical report will use all the available data collected by experienced tunnel engineers who have spent several years working inside this structure.”

The spokesman added that examinations took place along the length of the tunnel in 2018, while in 2019 surveys were carried out from the northern entrance to just beyond shaft two, but this couldn’t proceed further due to flooding. In 2020 inspections were undertaken on the dry sections.