michaelclayson
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?
Thank you Margaret, always useful to hear of personal experience. Your observation that we are already a Cinderella service reinforces my concern that a local service to Dawlish would not survive the creation of an "additional" line to Newton Abbot. I still think we should ensure that all decisions are evidence based, and it will be interesting to know if weather related speed ...
Just a reminder - skip service here, one week today
Safeguarding our sea defences is one cost. Maintaining a railway running across the top is far more expensive. We kid ourselves if we imagine the route through Dawlish will survive if an alternative route between Exeter and Newton Abbot is opened. I wouldn't believe any politician who promised this when other demands on the Transport budget are bring made by vastly greater population areas. ...
It would be interesting to know how much faster the train journey to Plymouth would be if electrification was brought in? I ask because the other benefits of moving the line seem unproven against the alternative of spending less money to improve the protection of the existing line against long term rising sea levels. We can only spend the money once, and there seem to be so many other ...
Clive I appreciate that you are not a local person and won't be aware that the perfectly normal seasonal disruption that has caused problems on railway lines across the UK this week has been played up by some as proof positive of a need for a new line avoiding Dawlish. It's no basis for an informed debate on how we use limited infrastructure budgets to best effect. It's going ...
We need to avoid the media story becoming unchallenged that Dawlish is "the problem". Please Dawlish people challenge when you see this happening !
