Combe Down Railway Tunnel
Opened in 1874, this mile-long railway tunnel Combe Down Tunnel (now disused) emerges below the southern slopes of the village. It was once the UK’s longest railway tunnel (1,829 yards) without intermediate ventilation. It is planned that the tunnel will form part of the £1.8 million Two Tunnels Greenway walking and cycling path. Its custodian is Wessex Water. The fourth and final £100,000 tranche of Council funding is due in financial year 2011/12 when the tunnel will be given a cycle-friendly surface, mobile phone coverage and lighting via motion detectors. Bat-friendly LED technology is being considered as an alternative to high-pressure sodium lamps.
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Famous quotes containing the words railway and/or tunnel:
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
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“It is the light
At the end of the tunnel as it might be seen
By him looking out somberly at the shower,
The picture of hope a dying man might turn away from,
Realizing that hope is something else, something concrete
You can’t have.”
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