General Discussion
I think it was obvious that MP Mel stride would back it, as it is his constituancy that will benefit.
The photo caption reads 'Crediton Station'. Really? - I wonder how the passengers get off there 
Have confidence Dawlish, if this line were to re-open it would not be to your funding detriment, that I think is quite secure.
However, imagine the matrix of route possibilities that could be opened up. i.e. Instead of considering all the negatives made about all the reversing at Plymouth and Exeter be creative - for daily use you could have a service based on a 'Dartmoor circular' with 'no terminous' running so that you could travel direct from say Exeter, Starcross, Dawlish, Teignmouth, NA, Totnes, Ivybridge and Plymouth to Tavistock, Lydford Gorge, Bridestowe, Okehampton or Crediton and vica versa. By my calculations that is a choice of approximately 39 new direct journeys from South to North Devon that don't currently exist at all!! Plus an equal number in reverse for the folk in North Devon making a total of 78 choices of journey in total A brilliant choice of journeys that would pull tourists and business opportunities in both directions to the benefit of the whole of Devon. Beats me why I haven't thought of this before 
as a major selling point to this. Come on Devon, be united and ambitious to the good of the whole county.
Maybe I might have missed something , but how many of your 39 choices will have to be relaid track? and if there is any to be relaid , how are you going to fund it?
Michael Clayson, I know you read the posts here, maybe you could throw some light on the decision making process. Who is involved in the discussions? The tourist board? How could people like Clive communicate with Network Rail and other stakeholders?
As far as I am aware, no formal consultation process for the study into alternative routes has yet been announced. Network Rail are saying, one thing at a time, and the one thing at the moment is opening the track
the final decision can only be made by Central Govt
Okey (how appropriate?) dokey then. And as I know I keep saying on here time and time again one way of communicating thoughts, ideas, questions whatever to the wider public as well as the decision makers is by way of letters to our local paper.
For example, I think you'll find there is an open letter to our MP in today's Gazette about the possible breakwater, its funding and other related issues.
And the thing is with regard to additional routes - NR are presently doing a study on the various options and will be reporting back to the Sec of State for Transport in the Autumn I believe it is. So............if suggestions with regard to the additional route are not put to NR NOW it may be too late for the suggestions to be considered.
Words spoken by Mark Carne, Chief Exec, NR in answer to Question 67 at the Transport Select Committee meeting 25.2.14. (My emphasis in red).
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.
@stephen15 - tavistock, lydford gorge, bridestowe are the relaid track (i.e. meldon-bere alston 20miles?). the point is, when 'the options' get presented in june, the oke-tavy option should be 'cost benefited' not just as a resiliance and diversionary benefit but also as a county business generator that helps not just north devon but South Devon as well. Hence, my numbers game of 78 journey choices rather than 39 because the journeys can just as easily originate north of Dartmoor to travel to the beach, for example. A lot of comments are made about winners and losers with various options, but it seems to me that this is the one scheme that actually has the potential to benefit most of the county. Yes money is of course the issue, hence the more benefit that can be demonstrated from any and all the options to be presented in June, then the better the chance that at least one of them will succeed in being funded 
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@Lynne - point taken about promoting ideas and benefits to wider audience.