Dudley Tunnel

Dudley Tunnel

Overview
Location	Dudley, West Midlands, England
Coordinates	52°31′03″N 2°05′12″W / 52.517544°N 2.086741°W / 52.517544; -2.086741
OS grid reference	SO942910
Status	Part-open
Waterway	Dudley Canal No 1 Line
Start	52°31′23″N 2°04′45″W / 52.52317°N 2.07908°W / 52.52317; -2.07908 (Northern portal)
End	52°30′04″N 2°06′03″W / 52.50110°N 2.10086°W / 52.50110; -2.10086 (Southern portal)
Operation
Constructed	1775 - 1791
Opened	25 June 1791
Owner	Canal & River Trust
Technical
Length	3,172 yards (2,900.5 m)
Towpath	No
Boat-passable	No

class=notpageimage|

Location of Dudley Tunnel in the West Midlands

Dudley Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Dudley Canal Line No 1, England. At about 3,172 yards (2,900.5 m) long, it is now the second longest canal tunnel on the UK canal network today. (Standedge Tunnel is the longest, at 5,456 yards (4,989.0 m), and the 3,931 yards (3,594.5 m) Higham and Strood tunnel is now rail only). However, since the Dudley Tunnel is not continuous this status is sometimes questioned:^{[citation needed]} (the main tunnel is 2,942 yards (2,690.2 m), Lord Ward's tunnel is 196 yards (179.2 m) and Castle Mill basin is 34 yards (31.1 m)).

In 1959 the British Transport Commission sought to close the tunnel but this led to an Inland Waterways Association-organised massed protest cruise in 1960. The tunnel was however closed in 1962; and was further threatened with permanent closure by British Railways who wished to replace a railway viaduct at the Tipton portal with an embankment and a culvert.^[1] However, this never happened as the railway was closed in 1968 and the disused bridge demolished in the 1990s.^[2]

The tunnel was reopened in 1973, as a result of restoration, which had been a collaboration between local volunteers (originally the Dudley Canal Tunnel Preservation Society, later the Dudley Canal Trust), and the local authority, Dudley Borough Council. The opening ceremony was advertised as "TRAD 1973 - Tunnel Reopening at Dudley".^[1]