Membership Increase from 2025

The Rhondda Tunnel Society has kept its annual membership fee at £10 since the Society’s beginning in 2015 and has been able to pay for its activities by increasing its membership numbers while inflation has eroded the value of its subscriptions.

Regrettably, your committee has decided that it must increase the membership fee, so from 1st January 2025, it will become £15 per year. If you want the Society to post you a sticker every year when you renew your membership, that will cost an extra £2, but stickers are available foc from the shop.

We hope that you feel this still offers a very cost sensitive way for you to support the work that the society is doing to re-open the Rhondda tunnel.

It has been a long struggle, but over the past year especially, we have made a lot of progress behind the scenes.

The Society is in the process of getting planning permission to expose the buried Blaencwm entrance as a first step to re-opening the tunnel itself. Some of the proceeds from the Gala Ball have allowed us to fund the planning process. Next year, armed with that planning permission, we aim to raise the balance of funds needed to actually carry out the work, which is relatively small compared to the cost of reopening the whole tunnel.

After 10 years of campaigning, lobbying, explaining and enthusing by the volunteers on the committee, we have achieved some major steps forward in our journey to that long overdue re-linking of the Rhondda and Afon Valleys:

• In 2018, Balfour Beatty Rail gave a highly favourable report on the tunnel’s condition.
• The material that was dumped at the tunnel entrances has been found to be non-toxic so it can be removed without expensive re-processing, reducing reopening costs considerably.
• Earlier this year, the Society was able to buy the land immediately adjacent to the Blaencwm entrance – the old Glenrhondda colliery site, which we will turn into a country park and which will provide valuable space for a visitor centre and other attractions.
• Society Patron Martin Roberts has not only been working on securing process and funding for the tunnel itself, but also working alongside the Welsh Government and local authorities to mirror the tourism example of North Wales in developing ‘Visit the Valleys’- which will interlink tourist attractions in the Northern Valleys. The Rhondda Tunnel will form an important transport link as well as a major attraction in its own right.

Re-opening the tunnel is a multi-complicated initiative. Frustrating at times, it has not been an easy process, with issues such as the tunnel’s ownership, the overall cost of re-opening it and the perceived liability that ownership might bring at some future date, plus the instability of an ever-changing political landscape.

But the society are confident that the ducks are finally falling into a row, and before long there will be physical proof of progress, as earthmoving works begin.

We thank you for your continued support.

With all good wishes,

The Rhondda Tunnel Society Trustees and Committee.