Work is nearing completion on the Two Tunnels project which will dramatically shorten the national cyclepath (Colliers Way/Dundas towpath) route to Bath. Using two Victorian railway tunnels dug beneath Combe Down and under the high ground south of the city of Bath will bring Bath within a manageable cycle ride from Radstock. This will be a dramatic and accessible route leading north into the city and available for use on foot or on cycle.
The project creates over four miles of shared-use path, built on an existing disused rail line involving one substantial viaduct and a tunnel over a mile in length. This is the UK's longest unventilated tunnel, where the air is kept fresh by convection because one end is fifty feet higher than the other. Much of the route above ground already has public access in one form or another. Construction began in 2010 and the core of the route is due to be completed this year.
Substantial parts of the route (Linear Park, Lyncombe Vale, Tucking Mill to Midford) already have public access of some sort. Completion of the through route will connect NCN 24 at Midford (the Colliers Way) to the centre of Bath via a route which saves five miles.
This dramatic route, with feature lighting in the tunnels, will be a destination for touring cyclists from mainland Europe, and will offer many visitors to Bath the chance to get out of the city on hired bikes from the city centre to the Wellow Valley and on to Radstock and its fine museum. However, most of its users will be local people using the route for exercise, pleasure or commuting.
The route's bridges and viaducts are blue-brick patchwork. Unglamorous perhaps, but the line carried millions of people from the north of England to holidays on the south coast. It also, importantly, carried the beer from the world- famous breweries at Burton to Dorset and in the opposite direction, coal was taken north from the collieries around Radstock.
The route is as as much a part of the area's history as Pulteney Bridge, in Bath, and as a national rail link, it was the stuff of legend amongst train buffs, which mades its local neglect all the more unfortunate. Cycle tourists from Bath interested in trains will be able to go on from Radstock to the preserved British Rail era, Somerset and Dorset's Midsomer Norton South Station, to enjoy a short train ride and take refreshments in the static dining car.