General Discussion

Warnings came in Victorian era

Wednesday, 05 March 2014

Folly of cuts and closures is exposed by abnormal weather

Michael McArdell, of Braintree, Essex, writes:

The folly behind cuts and closures has been and continues to be exposed by the abnormal weather conditions striking the West Country and Wales since Christmas.

Dawlish, where the only remaining main line railway to Cornwall has been severed, is little more than halfway between Paddington and Penzance. West Devon, the Torbay area and Plymouth have been cut off from London. Restoration is likely to take longer than the estimated six weeks while storm conditions prevail.

Critics of zealous Victorian engineers sounded warnings when in l874 some 30 miles of track was laid along the valleys of the rivers Exe and Teign, with the seaboard that links them, to forge a direct route between Exeter and Newton Abbot.

Maybe the Teign Valley branch was constructed inland, skirting Dartmoor, to meet a potential emergency? 

Since a calamity on the present scale had not occurred for more than a century it must have seemed reasonable to have the line torn up during the Beeching purge of the l960s era. 

When I went to school as an evacuee pupil during the war years, the so-called Train Kids from Trusham depended on the line as the only means of transport out of the village at that time.

By now it has surely been realised that the closure of the Atlantic Coast line beyond Exeter was a mistake. Even if the section from Okehampton to Bude and Padstow was deemed unprofitable the spur through Tavistock to Plymouth should have survived as an alternative route to Penzance. The experimental track now being laid between Exeter and Okehampton Junction may be the beginning towards rectifying the error.

However, a recent BBC Question Time from St Austell revealed strong feelings of anger and frustration over the money required by HS2, a new high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham, while Cornwall is being starved of investment for reinstating, repairing and developed decayed infrastructures.

Either way, the message is clear: ‘Stop apportioning blame for past mistakes and restore a relief route to Plymouth without delay.’

Easter normally marks the beginning of the tourist season, on which many depend for an income booster. Through being mid-April this year, it must be hoped that the extra time will allow repairs to be completed so that normal rail services can be resumed between London and Penzance.