Demonstrate to Save the Woodhead Tunnel! - Saturday, January 12th 2008

We have organised a demonstration to further our campaign. The details are as follows:

Date: Saturday, 12th January 2008

Time: 1.00 p.m. until 3.00 p.m.

Place: Woodhead tunnel, Western entrance (click here for a map)

We hope to have speakers (to be confirmed) plus Samba bands. We can also now confirm that television and newspaper journalists will be present. All we need now is clement weather!

If you are an organisation/representative but cannot attend, please send us a message of support which we will read out at the rally.

People who wish to come are asked to make their own way to the tunnel, preferably using the Longdendale Trail (the old trackbed) travelling on foot or bicycle, but you can also travel along the B6105 to join the Trail if you can get a lift. Alternatively, you can drive to the site itself, turning off the A628. Parking is limited and the roads are precarious - please ensure that your own and others safety is paramount.

If you wish to walk or cycle the full distance, the best place to join the demo is at either the bus stop or Railway Station in Hadfield. There are regular trains to and from Manchester every 30 minutes, and hourly buses. The route from Hadfield to Woodhead is 6.3 miles long, and although the trail is completely level, you must be reasonably fit to walk and cycle there and back.

A map of the route is here.

First leafletting today

Activists from the group took the opportunity today to distribute leaflets and talk with Glossop residents at the Christmas Celebration held by Friends of Glossop Train Station. It was clear that many people do not know about the threat posed to the tunnel (even people who work in the Rail industry!), but despite that, the response to the campaign was overwhelmingly positive.

Furthermore, High Peak MP Tom Levitt was present, and pledged to activists that he will sign the Early Day Motion.

We have a print-ready PDF of our leaflet available for download here. Please feel free to print this off and distribute it wherever you are.

Parliamentary Early Day Motion to stop National Grid's plans

Graham Stringer, the MP for Manchester Blackley, introduced an Early Day Motion (EDM) to Parliament this Tuesday protesting about the plans of National Grid for Woodhead. It reads as follows:

"That this House believes that, at a time when the Government Rail White Paper endorses the strategic freight network and forecasts rail usage doubling over 30 years, National Grid's proposal to embark upon a cabling project through the Woodhead Tunnel between Manchester and Sheffield would mean an irrevocable loss of rail capacity; and therefore calls upon the Government to investigate and intervene on this issue as a matter of urgency to prevent this strategic rail route being lost forever"

An Early Day Motion is a motion for debate. They are not usually openly debated in the House of Commons, but remain open for signature in the current parliamentary session.

So far, the EDM - number 459 of the 2007/2008 session - has attracted the signature of 9 MPs, although none from the constituencies that Woodhead runs through or is next to. We believe this is only a matter of time, but we would expect that the MP for High Peak, Tom Levitt, will sign, as the Eastern end of the tunnel is wholly within his constituency of High Peak and he has previously stated his support for the reopening of the line.

Please write to your MP - whomever they may be - asking them to sign the Early Day Motion.

4 simple things you can do to campaign for the tunnel

1. We are all volunteers, donate to our campaign to keep it running.

2. Keep up to date with our campaign by signing up to our newsletter.

3. Get involved in the Save the Woodhead Tunnel campaign and help make your voice heard - send us an email if you want to find out more, including details of forthcoming meetings. Download our leaflet here & print off copies for distribution to as many people as you can. You can write to us at: Save The Woodhead Tunnel, PO Box 367, Hyde, Cheshire, SK14 4WD.

4. Write to Philip Hammond MP, Secretary of State for Transport asking him to save the route (Department for Transport, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DR).