Dawlish Discussion

Devonlive:-

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/dawlish-sea-wall-damaged-storm-1285826

The current storm damage, whilst not damaging the physical railway lines, damaged a spread of metal railings and pushed them onto the railway lines. This stoped the trains running whilst engineers moved the offending debri so the trains could start running again.

That was on the 2nd March and the work to correct the closing of the sea wall was to replace a few paving slabs, sea wall edge stones and replace the metal railings. The metal railings in themselves were merely secured to flag stones which were cemented to the ground so were easy to move by the storm.

As is the case with most things that require a little ooomph from our local elected officials not a lot seems to be happenning to get the wall reopened for the Easter weekend.

What does our local council do other than spend large amounts of money on projects that the people of Dawlish only usually here about after money has been spent on them?

Before 'you know who charges in' yes, I am aware the sea wall is the reponsibility of the railway and not Dawlish council, but pressure should be put on the railway company to get it sorted.

It would seem, in my opinion, the railway companies attitude is - the trains are running so just shut the sea wall off and stuff the residents of Dawlish.

Don't get me started on Coryton Cove:-

written without prejudice.

What with the Exeter road as well. How is that getting on?

Is the seawall not private property and Network Rail who own it reluctantly allow the public access and with railings missing it's a public safety issue. The problem is that these jobs making a set of railings would once have been undertaken by engineers in the railway yard workshops, they would have made them in 48 hours and put them back in place.  Not any more its now a number of quotes to get the best price then a number of weeks to make them it could take months and in the meantime no one can access Coryton Cove to clear up the mess its not Railtracks fault its the system as they just cant go down to joe blogs to get a set of railings made.

The railings on the other side are bog standard, why could they not use those on the damaged side even if it is of a temporary nature?

Maybe a safety issue removing railings gives the public access to the track.

I don't mean use those in situ now, I mean get the bog standard railings from source and instal them. They are used everywhere on the sides of rail tracks. 

How long did it take the contractors to remove the old railings on the Marine Parade side of the track and replace it with the bog standard railings, I think it was completed in less than a week.

I see your point but you know how it is money money and it matters not to Network Rail to open the sea wall as they have no obligation to do so it's not like a public footpath it's a private wall.