General Discussion
I have asked FGW for an update on when they will be able to restart a service between Exeter and the Warren. They tell me that they cannot run services to Dawlish Warren because (1) The line is needed to transport materials (2) The signals are still damaged and (3) the station is needed as a depot. They promise to re-establish a service as soon as they can, and appreciate our forebearance in the meantime
That sounds fair enough. Does anyone know - is it being repaired as it was, i.e. with the low section that is impassible at high tide, or are they beefing that bit up a bit and making it taller/thicker?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26361280 Looks chunky - Nothing like commiting to loadsa loadsa concrete to solve the problem :)
Clive, that film clip doesn't give any indication as to the future level of the path. Let's just get the track sorted first, and get the line reopened for Dawlishians and those beyond.
@Mrs C - some extra detail from the new civil engineer which may be of interest - at the main breach, the hole has now backfilled with 5000m3 of mass concrete to a depth of 3m against a shutter of concrete vehicle barriers. these have been tied together vertically and horizontally into the concrete with steel bars. this week a reinforced concrete strip footing is being poured complete with delivery of 120 bespoke precast concrete l units. these will be placed on the strip footing and mass concrete to form a track bed channel with a 2m high wall to the front and a 3m high retaining wall on the landward side. Not quite a 'Berlin Wall' but sounds beefy to me!
Clive, thanks for the info. Does that mean the houses on Riviera Terrace will face a wall that is higher than was previously there?
Sorry, don't know the previous situation well enough to be able to say which was/is higher, though I wouldn't expect the new one to be lower! It sounds like reasonable compromise of heights to give protection without being too outlandishly high, but beauty will always be in the eye of the beholder, i.e. reinforced concrete will be a very robust solution but not always everyone's idea of an attractive outlook. As the saying goes, 'you cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs'.
Clive, have you ever been to this part of the Dawlish seawall? You keep quoting stuff that bears no relation to the actual location.
No, bit tricky to get there at the mo
, never trust everything you read in the papers, eh? Just really saying that you can be sure the solution will be far more robust than pre-storms.
If you look at the transcipt of last tuesday`s transport select committee meeting , look at question 67 and mark carne`s answer. incidentally adrian sanders asked some very good questions.
Mark Carne: As I said earlier on, there are three steps. I have described the first step, which is the immediate repair. The second step is how we make the Dawlish railway more robust to the kind of storms that we have seen in the future, because the repairs that we are currently doing are basically not like for like, but we are restoring the railway so that it is broadly the same. We will be kicking off a study in the next couple of weeks to look at that, to see what kinds of measures could be taken to really make the railway there more storm-tolerant. That may mean having to put a breakwater in front of the wall at the moment or it may mean putting some breakwater further out to sea to absorb some of the energy of the waves. Those sorts of studies need to take into account the full impact of the changing weather patterns and the changing current patterns and so on, and the way in which waves may move and be deflected so that you don’t create any unintended consequences. It is an important study that we will do over the coming months, but we are very clear that we will need to do something more to increase the robustness of the railway in Dawlish.
Then the third phase is the longer-term option of, potentially, additional routes into the west country, either restoring some of the older railway lines that were taken out of use in the 1960s, or potentially creating new routes that will bypass Dawlish or create another route around Dawlish. That work is something that we will commence very shortly. At this stage we do not have a preferred option on this. We are in a divergent phase of collecting people’s ideas and thoughts about what all the alternatives are that should be considered in this, and we hope to consult with stakeholders in the next couple of weeks to make sure that we have really captured all of the ideas in that. That work will then be studied over the next few months, with the hope that we will be able to come to a conclusion as to what will be the viable options, from a broad socioeconomic perspective, by the autumn.
There is a certain paradox that may be seen here from the fabulous job of the rail replacement bus services.
One particular shining example is the luxury executive replacement bus departing Tiverton Parkway at 20.17 arrives in Bodmin Town centre 1hr 55mins later. Compare this with the a standard 'principal stations' service from Tiverton Parkway e.g. the 17.18 to Bodmin Parkway 19.18 (3.5miles from the centre of Bodmin) of some 2hrs. QED.
Moreover, from Paddington, the overall journey replacing the traditional crack 18.03 'Golden Hind' (which normally arrives B.Parkway 21.57) is now only 15mins more to Bodmin (arrives 22.12) inspite of getting on a replacement bus at Tiverton P/w. This extra 15mins is arguably more than recouped by the convenience of actually arriving in the town centre rather than out in the sticks at Bodmin Parkway which rarely conveniently connects with local buses anyway. So well done to FGW for this excellent patch-up service.
A case may therefore also be made that with well organised replacement buses, that the train is so sufficiently slow over this portion of the journey for replacement buses to be a perfectly viable alternative compared with say opening Oke-Tavy as a diversion which would give much slower emergency diversion journeys than either normal or replacement services !!
(o.k. I know have selected perhaps the best example to make the point, but it does illustrate the paradox) 
@Clive.The fastest route is by the coast and always has been. also FGW are now selling Advance Tickets again.
Stagecoach are doing their bit too >>>>
http://www.stagecoach.com/media/news-releases/2014/2014-02-14.aspx
@stephen15 - yes very much agree, (and no train person really wants to start hoping off and on buses). the bus point is really that normally people expect at least a 50% time advantage by taking the train. also i think lots of people on the train, me included, look forward to the exeter to na stretch as a big relief from the tedium of all the hours getting to cornwall, i.e. the perception of time is reduced if you feel you have had a 15min holiday along the way 