Feasibility funding for Pennine tunnel scheme

Trans-Pennine Connect has received £500,000 for a feasibility study into a proposed £2bn road tunnel linking Sheffield and Manchester beneath the Peak District. The private-sector campaign says the project could improve a difficult east-west journey and has also proposed restoring the Woodhead railway line.

The road tunnel would run for 14 miles from Langsett to Tintwistle, replacing the A628 Woodhead Pass, and would be the UK’s longest of its kind. The group estimates it could cost less than £2bn using Norway’s drill-and-blast method, compared with a previous government assessment of £12bn using conventional methods. The railway proposal involves reopening a line closed in 1981; the feasibility funding comes from the UK Dynamism Fund, matched with support from XTX Philanthropy.