A campaign to win a portion of  £50 million of Lottery funding to create new cycle routes in Bath has been successful.

It was revealed in December 2007 that the Two Tunnels project will be awarded £1m, thanks to the votes of local people.   

The project is part of a national initiative by sustainable transport charity Sustrans and is supported by Bath & North East Somerset Council. Sustrans battled its way into a shortlist of four organisations competing for the £50 million pot to fund projects around the country, under the National Lottery’s The People’s Millions scheme. 

The Sustrans project is called Connect2. Once complete the project will see hundreds of miles of walking and cycling routes spring up around the UK – providing extra bridges, extra links - improving travel and reducing our carbon footprint. Two Tunnels is just one of the many projects included in this scheme.

The multi-user path will join Bath and Midford by a virtually flat system of tunnels and impressive overland paths following the existing disused railway. The route makes a wide sweep through Oldfield Park, surfaces in the secretive Lyncombe Vale and finally emerges in beautiful open country at Tucking Mill, before joining the long distance Sustrans NCN24 route at Midford.

The campaign promoters expect the ‘Two Tunnels’ route to benefit businesses, residents and visitors. They believe it will encourage visitors to stay for more than a simple two-hour visit to the city centre, and make more use of what Bath has to offer. It will also secure the future for the impressive railway structures on this famous old route, and offers a chance to make good use of some of Bath’s more under-appreciated assets, reclaiming them for residents and visitors.

However, the route first has to be built, and while much of the work has already been done courtesy of the Victorian engineers who built the railway, it will cost an estimated £1.8 million to complete.  

Further information on the Connect2 project is available at www.sustransconnect2.org.uk. 

In addition the Five Arches project in Norton Radstock will be on the reserve list for funding as part of the Connect2 project, for more information see: http://www.fivearches.org.uk/