Dawlish News
Thank you Clive for reinforcing the point that the economics of maintaining a line through Dawlish are dependent on it being the route to Plymouth. Once there is an "alternative" route that case begins to fall apart, and the bean counters will soon begin to press for abandonment of the expensive option of maintaining a railway line on top of a sea wall.
Trains were stopped this morning on the line from Neeton Abbot to Exeter The explanation being given by FGW was Leaves on the line Nuff said .........
The following may contain the seeds of an answer to Daverc's question http://www.devon.gov.uk/dawlishupdate.pdf http://www.devon.gov.uk/text/census_profile-div47-dawlish.pdf Very worrying information about homes without central heating, fuel poverty and children being raised in poverty Dawlish is a lovely place to live, but its sad to see how difficult life can be for ...
I don't think it fair to accuse people asking quite fundamental questions of being scaremongering. Nor would I suggest those who don't share concern are sticking their head in the sand. It is a key issue for the future of our town. We can only hope to see a clear decision on December 3rd. I'd want to see this backed up with guaranteed money - just in case it is blank cheques being ...
We do all agree that maximum resilience proofing of the current line is essential. Points of discussion seem to have been: If the line is made more resilient, is there still a case for a second line? Given the Uk wide need for investment in transport, is a doubling of the line the best way of spending limited budgets? Normal winter conditions cause problems for voyager trains. ...
Perhaps this is a good point to conclude our interesting discussion. Goodnight Margaret
I think most of us would resist making long term decisions on the basis of what happened this year. It was by any means exceptional. Margaret, you referred earlier to an additional line for when the Dawlish route is inaccessible. Now you change it to a branch line for local traffic into Exeter. I still see that as too tempting as an alternative to maintaining services along the sea wall. ...
Sorry wondering, but a branch line just to service Starcross, The Warren, Dawlish and Teignmouth wouldn't make economic sense. It costs a small fortune to run a railway line across the top of the sea wall. No government would commit to this just to serve a population of 25,000 and two small resorts.
Interesting Margaret, I don't understand, how this is cost effective. You go to all the trouble and massive expense of building a new line and then mothball it for the few days per year that the Dawlish line is inaccessible. You employ people to carry out all the necessary regular checks and maintenance so that at short notice you can throw the line in to operation and transport ...
So Margaret, are you advocating building a new line avoiding Dawlish?
