The Two Tunnels route will use an old rail trackbed to burrow beneath Combe
Down - the high ground south of the city - creating an almost level and
direct route between the city centre of Bath and the Midford valley, 2½ miles south of the city.
This will create a range of new opportunities for travel on foot or bike - from better walking links within the city to a 13 mile largely traffic free 'Bath Half Marathon' circular route out to Dundas Aqueduct and then back via the canal towpath.
Combe Down Tunnel open day retrospective. Updated 25th July
'My great grandfather, Thomas Andrew Walker, built the Bath to Evercreech line in 1872-4, including the two tunnels. We are delighted with the use to which you are putting this long-forgotten railway.'
The Two Tunnels route is being built by Sustrans working in partnership with Bath and North East Somerset Council. This web site is the work of the community group who originated the project and who campaign for the route. The route has widespread support among the local community and from further afield.
Construction's under way, but both organisations and individuals can still contribute to this. More funding = a better Two Tunnels route.
If you or your organisation can sponsor one of our 'Big ticket' structures, you've the opportunity to give the city of Bath a present that will be of long term value to the people that live and work here - helping secure the route and giving its history proper recognition in the 21st century. You'll be giving a unique resource to Bath's residents and visitors - space to exercise, walk with friends and family, enjoy the city from a new angle, space to think. If you'd like to help, please get in touch.
Sign up and join over 500 supporters -
at our 'Yahoogroup' mailing list.
Become a Sustrans 
supporter.
Watch a two minute TV clip courtesy of ITV West (9 megabytes - select the link and be prepared to wait while it downloads)
If you're on 'Facebook', join the Two Tunnels Facebook group . We need supporters from schools, colleges, athletics groups and the local universities - major users of the proposed path but under-represented on our own support group. Now that you've discovered this project, spread the word and help it to happen.
If this line had been opened fifty years earlier, we'd value it as part of Georgian Bath.
Instead, its structures are 'Blue-brick patchwork Victorian'. Unglamorous, the line carried millions of people to holidays on the south coast, carried the beer from Burton to Dorset, carried the coal that gave Bath the grimy black and silver appearance that many people will recall from the days before its buildings were cleaned.
It's as much a part of Bath's history as Pulteney Bridge, and as a national rail link, it was the stuff of legend, which makes its local neglect all the more unfortunate.
Dundas Aqueduct: 1970, derelict
Present day, valued open space.
If we were now looking at a neglected Dundas aqueduct, the task ahead would be daunting. With your support we are turning engineering works on the Two Tunnels route from liabilites into assets. Two of the three viaducts on the route need maintenance or demolition. Both approaches represent expenses, but these structures are assets: it's better to seek grant money that enables their reuse rather than eventual demolition through neglect.
Consider Midford Viaduct, now reused by NCN24, courtesy of a £163,000 grant from the Department for Transport, or the recent restoration of Midford aqueduct, at a cost of £850,000. The 'Two Tunnels' route will still cost rather more than both of these put together, but it is achievable, desirable and, given the benefits, not unaffordable. If you'd use this resource and you've got this far, do something today to help this happen.
Join our support group, it's free, and there's more information there as to why this will help.
Contact: ignore the strikethrough - here's our email address:
Tel (Ansaphone): (+44) 1225 723 490
Two Tunnels: Made in Bath.