RHONDDA TUNNEL SOCIETY

The Rhondda Tunnel is tunnel is 3443 yard (3148 metres) long, making it the third longest railway tunnel in Wales and the 11th longest in the UK. It was built for the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway with construction starting in June 1885 and opening in July 1890. The tunnel was engineered by Sydney William Yockney, the son of Samuel Hansard Yockney, who himself worked for Brunel on the Box Tunnel near Bath. The line was built to facilitate the export of Rhondda coal through the Swansea Bay ports, to compete with the booming business in coal export through Cardiff, Newport and later Barry.

The line was not a great commercial success and by 1905, the Great Western Railway took over running it. A survey in 1967 revealed distortion in the roof which led to the temporary closure of the tunnel on 26th February 1968. In December 1970 the Ministry of Transport announced the withdrawal of passenger services citing the cost of repair at £90,000 to be prohibitive, especially as coal mining had largely ceased by that time in upper Rhondda Fawr. This conveniently coincided with the “Beeching cuts” and after a decade of disuse the tunnel cuttings were filled in and the surrounding area landscaped.

The tunnel itself passes through hard pennant sandstone, a strong and stable rock and is in remarkably good condition in spite of half a century of neglect, although it does require repairs, mainly towards the ends. The Rhondda Tunnel Society has been campaigning to re-open it since 2014 to become Europe’s longest walking/cycling tunnel and during winter, longest anywhere in the world.