Yes - that's the case in terms of recent re-openings,  partly because they're consulted on and studied by industry consultants from left, right, east, west, above and below.    That has not always been the case  - both the re-opening of Sinfin and the first re-opening of Corby (these days, 68,000 population) failed to make the mark; people explain both away as "special cases" but then we want to ensure that there are no more special cases!

 

I recently read somewhere that an open access operation (?Grand Union Trains) was expressing interest in a service from London Waterloo along the Fawley branch.  Surely, as reopenings happen (Borders, Okehampton, Ashington...) and are proven every time to exceed expectations in terms of passenger numbers, the case for investing in such sound proposals as Fawley and Tavistock must be getting stronger.

 

 
But behind the Fawley branch in the greater south/south west region? This has a catchment area population considerably greater than Tavistock.

 
If, as seems to be the case, the Portishead reopening gets underway, does Tavistock-Bere Alston move up to #1 in the charts for a new/reinstated railway in Great Westernland?


 

 
The fun that can be had with a simple, immediately recognizable prop.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/373973826510518/permalink/1460053614569195/?mibextid=oMANbw

 

Here it is, Paul.

 
Thanks Richard for this.
However those of us that don’t do FB cannot see the full letter. Would it be possible for you to copy it in full here?
Cheers,
Paul

 
Local MP Geoffrey Cox has posted the letter he and Jamie Hulland of Devon County Council have received from Rail Minister Huw Merriman confirming that the Government will fund reopening to Tavistock to delivery (ie completion) subject to future updates to the project business case.

Given the Government list generally seems now only to be "illustrative", we're lucky that Tavistock is being taken forward so positively.

I don't know the amount of money involved - think it could be £120m or so - which, while a lot generally, is not a massive sum to the Government so given the go ahead, whatever happens at the election when it comes, it looks very hopeful now that we will all one day be able to go over Shillamill Viaduct in a train (again - for those of you who did pre 1968).

Here's the post  https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=756903739573670&set=pcb.756904029573641

 
Nothing posted since 2021.....

 
Have you come across this?

https://northernrouteworkinggroup.wordpress.com/

 

Indeed - the scheme for re-opening to Tavistock is that from Plymouth and not as I understand it as part of, or with forward consideration, for a re-instated alternative line from Exeter to Plymouth.   The path of the old railway though Tavistock has a number of obstacles that have come in since the line was closed 55 years ago, and the current rebuild proposal has the re-installed line stopping short of them.  Furthermore, as I read it the re-installed line would require heavy earth moving to provide a flat station rather than one on a gradient, resulting in a lowering of the trackbed that would add a further obstacle to having trains continue to(wards) Okehampton in the future.

 
Bunkers Hill "B"  https://www.teignrail.co.uk/political-campaigning.php#bunkers

 

Something like this? 
F - Ferry Road Stations (same place as Victoria Road really!)



Edit - I have tweaked the trains slightly and corrected a couple of typos

 
Connections at Bere Alston (brrr in the winter!) for Tavistock from Gunnislake will need careful planning

 

The strong message from the Cornish side is that they want to retain their through Plymouth trains so the plan is for the Gunnislake service to be similar to now with an hourly Plymouth - Tavistock service overlaid on top.

 
So - should this go ahead, how will services work? a la Georgemas Junction or splitting trains at Bere Alston or...reversing at Gunnislake to Bere & then onto Tavistock? If I was in a RUG at Gunnislake, I might have a concern or two.

 

[:laugh:] - look at the physical geography.

A Georgemas style operation would mean that trains from Plymouth would reverse up and down to Gunnislake before carrying on to Tavistock ... I think that has already been ruled out; I have seen interesting suggestions before.

But this is just a promise at this stage.  And as we saw yesterday, this government is capable of breaking promises.   The £2 bus fare extension from the end of this month is probably safe until the next election, but as for most of the rest ...  my thoughts

 
Looking at the map for ou local TV news on this, and as seen above, why is there a link from Bere Alston, thus making Tavistock and Gunnislake branches.
Why not link Tavistock to Gunnislake?

Reminds me of splitting at Georgemas.

 
From Totnes Today

 
Completely agree.

I wonder how much an independent assessment of the costings involved will be? I would happily contribute towards this as  I suspect Network Rail routinely inflate the costs of any project they don’t wish to get involved with.

 
No, there isn't a community group (yet), Graham, and I think there are probably two main reasons why - 1) the scheme has the support of Devon County Council and they are taking it forward (though it has stalled in the last two or so years due to money) and 2) the deal about the new houses had a lot of opposition in Tavistock.  The houses, of course, got approved and (I think - I've not seen the site for a while) building has started.  I know, and you'll have seen it on that Facebook group, that there is a lot of frustration that the houses are happening but the railway isn't, yet at least.

All the focus at Devon County Council is on getting the Government to approve Bere Alston - Tavistock as a heavy rail reopening under the Beeching Reversal Fund.  To me, if the Beeching Reversal Fund is actually going to rebuild and reopen closed railways, Tavistock has got to be right up there among the top half a dozen schemes across the country.  So much of the land has been assembled and so much of the preparatory work has been done.

 
Is there a community / campaign group in Tavistock pressing to work with all the various powers that be / interested parties for the re-instatement of the Tavistock - Bere Alston section?  Rather line OkeRail ( https://www.facebook.com/okerail/ ) presses for Okehampton, or the Portishead Railway Group ( https://www.portisheadrailwaygroup.org ) for Portishead, or SaveTheTrain ( http://www.savethetrain.org.uk ) did for Melksham?

Although such groups have only very limited resources to do the actual work, they are community triggers which can help make the case, and help it forward through the various stages. Where a scheme seems at risk of being sidetracked or derailed, the community can bring focus to bear on the ultimate outcome desired. 

Princetown Today reports Transport upgrade backed by Devon County Council:



Bere Alston to Tavistock seeems to have been under discussion for nearly a decade and a half - see my notes at http://www.passenger.chat/790 from October 2007 ... and to find us here in 2020 still in a "what's the best way, folks - cycles or trains" analysis, with a scheme for cycles being promted / pushed and still competing for funds to look at the rail option is, frankly, depressing.  Unless the reader knows better - I'm just reading an articl from a local rag, and online finding only a Facebook Group which - though interesting - has content that's more reminiscences that community campaign.

 

So do I. The challenges are legal rather than engineering and legal.

 

Thanks.  I think Okehampton will be first.  All eyes on the announcement of GWR's Direct Award to continue running their network from 1 April. 

 
Some good news, thanks.

I strongly believe that If Tavistock happens, Okehampton will happen or vice versa, as the passenger revenue will significantly exceed forecasts (look at the growth on the other SW branch lines).

 

Which would also effectively reduce the gap on the mooted northern route through Okehampton.

 
The good news is that Devon County Council have announced that they are to bid to the Government's Beeching Reversal Funds for money to take the Tavistock scheme forward.  Devon own around 90% of the trackbed, much of the preparatory work has been done and there is the £11 m or so in s106 developers' contributions from the houses being built around the proposed new station site by Callington Road in Tavistock.  The Government have made it clear that the £500m is to develop proposals, with the clear implication that there will need to be more Government money to make the proposals they accept a reality.  There was a bit on today's Politics South West programme (Okehampton features too) - starts at 09m 30 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000fc3t/politics-south-west-09022020

 
These houses are finally going to be built of Callington Road soon.
I wonder if this is indication the railway is edging closer. If provision is being left for the reinstanted rail link.

Read that embankment would have to be altered if used as a single track route. Is that considerable work?

 

I'm a bit puzzled by your comments.  Stagecoach 1 service (Plymouth to Tavistock) has been every 15 minutes in the core daytime (Monday to Saturday) since Stagecoach took over from First Group.  I use it quite frequently (living not too far from the middle of the route) and its quite a well used service.

 
Buses will become irrelevant if the line should reopen. The Exmouth line faces not inconsiderable competition from bus companies that run frequent services and hasn’t stopped the line from growing passenger numbers and additional services being provided

 

I'm sure the developer of the housing project claimed they had not made enough money from the project to build the new railway station?

Personally, I think it does need a railway but I doubt it will happen.  First buses 83, 84 and 86 used to be very good, every 20 minutes, especially nice when the P&R Enviro's moved onto the route, since Stagecoach have taken over its been chopped and changed and now there is no more fast bus from Tavistock to Plymouth.

 
Highly unlikely. The Ombudsman is almost certainly going to be limited to dealing with issues between passenger and TOC.

 

Will potential passengers who feel that due and proper process has not been followed by able to take such suggestions of poor behaviour to the Rail Industry Ombudsman?   

 

Same game they have played with Barnstaple to Bideford in making the costs excessively high despite no properties being demolished and the tracked ready in place. Standard behaviour for NR when they don’t want to take on a new project

 
One could be forgiven for thinking that it is being put off until it becomes unaffordable.

 

Been far too long a job already.  This is reply No. 578 ... thread been running for 11 years.

 
Was in Tavistock last weekend...is there still hope for the reinstatement from Bere Alston? The last I heard was on BBC Spotlight last year, saying a proposed date was set for 2022?? Anyone else heard any thing about the project moving forward?

 

More so when the line is basically a long siding.  DCC should be challenging the estimate, before considering savings.  Though how more basic a railway is a siding?

 

"The cost does now appear to have escalated to £60m and hence Devon CC are looking to see how the project may be delivered at a lower cost."

What a disgrace that 10km of rural single track railway could be costed at £60M.

We need railways but not the sort NR and ORR contrive.

NR = No Railway

OTC

 
Thank you Richard.

 

The latest is that Devon CC are still assembling the land and doing work to prepare for the submission of a Development Consent Order application in due course.  The cost does now appear to have escalated to £60m and hence Devon CC are looking to see how the project may be delivered at a lower cost. 

I've not seen or heard any detail behind the £60m figure, I'm afraid.

 
Confused of Plymouth here!

On my device the thread is headed "Campaign for Tavistock reopening"

 
Thanks. Now it's only eight years old!

 

There's a thread about Newquay to St Austell:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=5030

 
This thread came up as new, I had a look at it and was confused. Campaign for a line from Newquay to St Austell? What would be the point of that when there's a line from Newquay to Par just up the road? Then I noticed those were posts from ten years ago. So is this a campaign that actually succeeded or was there a campaign for a line to St Austell as well as to Par?

 
Bumping this topic to ask if anyone (RichardB?) has any current info?

 
Report in Plymouth Herald (sorry cant download link) report price for reopening now £60 Million.

 
Bit of a snippet from this weeks Tavistock Times. The Bovis outline planning application has been re-approved by WDBC  at a meeting in July. There would seem to have been some hard negotiating to bring this about because the contribution of Bovis has decreased from ^13.27m to ^11.5 million in the proposed section 106 agreement. No mention of how much is needed to complete the funding of the railway reinstatement or what sources are available to that end but at least things seem to be moving again, albeit at sub snail pace.

 

Didn't really understand that bit. The impression given by WDBC and DCC was that a large part of the funding was to be provided by Bovis as part of the deal to build 750 houses adjacent to the proposed new station at Tavistock-there was a bit of wrangling going on some time ago but surely that cannot have led to Bovis now being out of the funding picture altogether? There was also some reference some time ago to money being allocated by a body called " heart of the west" or something like that-has that disappeared in a cloud of smoke or is that part of the "growth deal" bid referred to in the report? Whatever, it is so damned slow [it's been talked about since at least 1974] and convoluted as to seriously make you wonder if it will ever happen, regardless of assurances to the contrary.

 
With reference to the above post the full report can be found here:

http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/transport/rail/item/3986-rural-reconnections

Certainly makes for quite interesting reading

 
Just been reading through the the" Campain for Rural England report in Favour of Re-opening the Okehampton Route"  some points of interest which state.

The  buisiness case for re-opening the Bere Alston-Tavistock section will go to the Local Transport Board for consideration later this year.
But is not yet funded,and is expected that funding will be sought by DCC through a growth Deal bid .
It could be open by 2020/1 but the design of the route and station at Tavistock will need to be able to accommodate a subsequent northwards extension.

 
2023 that's just ridiculous. This project is taking so long. What happened to 2017.

 
Interestingly, Tavistock featured in the FGW Stakeholder briefing for the new franchise - they seem pretty keen to support the Council in getting it reopened.

 

Calling at Royston Vasey, perchance? 

 

I thought the wink at the end of my post would have given it away... 

 

Edward: Now: How many passengers?

Tubbs: Twelvety!

 
It's a local line for local people.

 
This scheme has nothing to do with Dawlish, or resilience - it is simply an extension from Bere Alston to Tavistock, for local commuters.

 
So we might get to Tavistock in 2023, almost a full decade since the calls for urgent action to ensure that lines east of Dawlish Warren wouldn't be cut off from the Cornwall-South Devon rail network again.

Let's hope that Mother Nature isn't planning on biting out a chunk of the iron road along the seawall again anytime soon. On the bright side, the powers that be have 8 whole years to plan for a rail-replacement bus service for the 15 miles or so between Tavistock & Okehampton.   

 

It comes straight from the DCC input document (the Environmental Impact Assessment Screening and Scoping Report):

It looks more like plain realism, frankly.

 
I've just been looking at the Planning Inspectorate Scoping Opinion, dated December 2014.  It's available at www.devon.gov.uk/tavistock-bere-alston-railway-and-trails

This says construction would commence early 2020 and last 2-3 years for the three phases of the construction listed.

Isn't that a further substantial move back in the timetable?

 
As ever, many thanks for your helpful and informed comments, RichardB. 

 
I was at Bere Ferrers Parish Council last week and was asked about what is happening at Callington Road, Tavistock.

I asked the Devon County Council Officer responsible - he told me "I can confirm that the work at the Callington Road end of the line is to support the development of a new track up onto the old Railway corridor. The scheme received planning permission last January and will serve as a future pedestrian/cycle link from Tavistock to the proposed development site and the proposed Tavistock Station. Ultimately DCC are looking to construct a new foot bridge at the location of the missing bridge on Callington Road ^ this is temporarily on hold while decisions are made about the Okehampton links/Exeter rail links.^

Given cashflow from the development in Tavistock and Network Rail's work commitments (including, of course, Plymouth and Cornwall resignalling by the end of 2018), opening to Tavistock will now be in 2020/21.  Personally I wouldn't expect it to be any later than that.  Hope I'm right!

 

 
Don't think either of you are being cynical. Hopefully this is a bit of "who blinks first" stuff and something can be sorted out quickly rather than any more underlying or deep rooted problem with the transaction.

Had a look today at the works at the broken bridge over the A386-definitely a cycle/footpath, too narrow to be anything else. Rather oddly, all they've done is to put in a gate at the roadside and tarmac a path up to the trackbed and well...that's it. The undergrowth has been cleared from the trackbed towards Bere Alston, didn't have time to find out how far-maybe some more tarmac will be laid in future but it looks like the work has finished for the moment.

 

Or maybe just waiting to see if the current lot get back in after May 7 as S106s are likely to be a thing of the past if they do! Or am I also just being cynical 

 
Damn. More delay! Maybe Bovis are holding out to see if a Government will commit to the entire line through Okehampton being opened so that they can reduce their costs?
Or am I just being cynical?

 
Letter

 
A letter from WDBC  site

 
Thanks for your update, 34104! 

 
There seems to be some sort of access road being built onto the railway embankment on the Bere Alston side of the broken bridge at Monksmead just outside of Tavistock on the A386 Callington Road,roughly in the area where the 750 new houses are to be built. It does look a bit narrow for a vehicular road, it may well be in relation to the cycle/footpath-possibly it will go to Shillamill viaduct and hopefully beyond to join up with the work that was done between the viaduct and Shillamill tunnel area some time ago.I will keep eyes duly open and report any further developments.

 

Sorry - I had developed the station code variant of snow blindness. Trying to find an unused code for either Ashton Gate or Ashton Vale, I came up with a free anti-virus software company. AHG is as close to Ashton Gate sa I can get.

 
Portishead could be SPW if North Somerset opt for the farthest out location for the station site.

 
AVG - Avon Gorge?
NOW and YEY were my attempt at humorous celebrations that Corsham comes after all these years (Yey! Now!)

for Corsham - I thought THC as "Technology Hub Corsham" but even THC has gone; Corsham is a major Technology an network hub for the internet - also gives NHC or IHC.  Then it's at the east end of Box tunnel so you could go with BXE

 


OK, so:

PHD - Portishead
AVG - ?

ASD - Ashley Down (but isn't this normally referred to as 'Ashley Hill'?)
PLL - Pill
SLF - Saltford
HRF - Horfield

YEY - ?
NOW - ?

Of course there's a reasonable chance that ASD (or whatever it is) could end up as the more-distinctive LKZ. Others we could consider:
THY
AHO
HNR

And at grahame's suggestion:
AZW

See what you mean about Corsham - tricky!

 

YEY or NOW?

 

Hedging my bets! I will also take a punt on AVG, ASD, PLL, SLF, and HRF. I'm struggling with Corsham.

 

I think that this is fairly obvious.
Route Availability (RA), which is mainly based on axle weight but not exclusively, is a number system. The higher the number the higher the axle weight that can be carried WITH NO SPEED RESTRICTION.

This is currently RA4 on the section from St Budeaux to Bere Alston. And I would suggest it probably will be to Tavistock as well.

From Meldon to Exeter it is RA6.

HST power cars fall into the RA5 bracket so some strengthening would be required to raise the RA. Incidentally class 220/221/222 are all RA4. Could FGW cope with ALL the 222's instead of the few older HST sets? I am sure that would get a lively response and maybe its own thread as I play Devil's Advocate!

How long the necessary closures would take to strengthen depends on what is constructed. Dual track or single over sections such as the Tavy and Tamerton Viaducts for example. These structures would probably need some strengthening

And of course the Sleeper is Loco hauled. Class 57's have an RA6. Though it would travel at reduced speed if RA was 'upped' to only RA5.

Of course, Network Rails cost of ^875m was for double track all the way round and included costs to upgrade the current sections of the 'Northern' route, including the cost of closure of portions of the line to upgrade.

 
If the 'Northern Route' were reopened, wouldn't it involve extensive rework to the Tavistock section to get it up to main line standard? I'm guessing they'd have to close it for what could be an extended period while this was done.

P.S. PHD, eh? Do you have access to informed sources, or is that a guess?

 

Hmm. I have read elsewhere that the planned Portishead to Bristol Temple Meads failed to progress past GRIP 3 because of its standalone status. It failed to prove the cost / benefit ratio needed to get it off the starting blocks, and slipped back to GRIP 0. The decision was taken to start again on the whole of Metrowest Phase 1, which has rapidly (in railway terms that is) got to GRIP 3, with GRIP 4 due for completion by autumn 2015. MetroWest scores more than the sum of its individual parts in BCR terms, with services from Portishead to Bath and Severn Beach giving better use of rolling stock than a mere shuttle service between BRI - PHD. 17 minutes each way does not fit into a clockface service.

So the delay in reopening Portishead is in part due to MetroWest. In greater part, IMHO, it demonstrates the folly of having a slapdash piecemeal approach to major transport projects, with no joined up thinking. Thus, North Somerset made their abortive solo bid for funds, then, having lost that, spent over ^100,000 on clearing vegetation in 2013, only to watch it grow again, ready for a second clearance beginning next month.

I don't think Tavistock is likely to suffer similar "blight", for the reasons Red Squirrel and trainbuff put forward. Until the big issues at Dawlish, the thought of reopening the whole route via Okehampton was far from the mind of Government. Despite the noise since, I don't think it has got much nearer the front of the mind. Tavistock to Bere Alston is around half the distance of Portishead to Parson Street, and I think the logistics of integrating services into existing traffic are easier to deal with. Subject to a good business case - it has half the population of the Portishead line within its catchment - I can't see why it would need to wait for a decision on Okehampton, although passive provision for the connection would have to be made.

 
I believe that the Tavistock reopening will go ahead in any case. I hope the 'Northern Route', as Government are calling it, will be built but the feasibility study will feed into CP6 (2019-2024). It will not be started till at least 2019, unless there is a really massive and rapid change in Government strategy,so by then the Tavistock route will be under construction if current time scales continue. The section is planned to be open by 2020.

Should the Northern Route be rebuilt it will in effect be an add on to the Tavistock and Meldon sections, though this is not to say that either of these portions will not be upgraded. Dependent on what form the through route is to be built as.

I hope that helps

 

The Tavistock scheme should be at GRIP 3 now, looking for GRIP 4 by the end of 2016.

The through route via Okehampton isn't in the GRIP process, and will only be rebuilt if there is a significant shift in strategy - which is not to say it won't happen, but one has to hope that this possibility won't blight the Tavistock scheme.

Having said that, the MetroWest project probably succeeded in delaying Portishead (which was at GRIP 3 as a standalone project) by a couple of years...

 
Is this project DOA with the talk of reopening the whole route from tavistock to okehampton being discussed map by government.

 

It could and it was. 

 
This could equally have been posted on the inappropriate photo thread. Picture of a Pendolino on a 4 track electrified railway. 

 
http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Moves-reopen-old-railway-line-near-Plymouth-step/story-24546284-detail/story.html

 
civ-eng-jim,

A warm welcome to the Coffee Shop, and my thanks for an insightful post, which explains much. Especially for me, a barrack-room / armchair civil engineer. Your point about it being cheaper to relocate the cyclepath away from the rail alignment hadn't occurred to me.

 

There are many factors why the line to Tavistock cannot accommodate either a double track or a cycle track alongside a single line, despite being a former twin track line.

When the line was first built, I doubt there was much in the way of track & land drainage. There's evidence within the tunnel of some drainage. Within the cuttings, it is proposed drainage runs are installed on both sides of track to prevent flooding. The pipework and catchpits take up considerable space.

Secondly, there was little or no provision for maintenance staff to walk the track in a place of safety while trains run. It is proposed a safe cess walkway will be installed along the entire length of the route.

Additionally the steep rock faces in the cuttings are unprotected. A rockfall would spill onto a twin track railway and could result in derailment and serious injury. To put protective netting along all faces would cost millions. By only reinstating a single track, the alignment can be designed so it lies away from potential rock fall zones, minimising the amount of rock netting required.

It is cheaper for Devon CC to provide a cycleway on an alternative alignment away from the railway than it is to rock-net the whole route. There is however one area where it may run adjacent the track.

The delay to any major engineering scheme is more down to planning and finance rather than technical reasons.
 

 
Hello, signalman, and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum! 

Thanks, too, for your useful update on this long drawn out project: hopefully, matters will continue to at least trundle along ... 

 
Hi Everyone my first post but I have been following this project for years

Just seen BBC Spotlight news and planning permission has been granted for the houseing development but a proposed opening of 2022.This scheme is certaintly crawling along.

 
Snippet from the Tavistock Times 21 August;

A scheme for 750 homes and a railway station on land adjacent to Callington Road Tavistock will be discussed by WDBC planners on 26th August.Bovis Homes plans have been recommended for conditional approval subject to a section 106 agreement being signed,which will see a financial contribution of more than ^13m towards the reinstatement of the railway.

Watch this space,as they say!

 
An interesting discussion with regard to mention of any possibility of going beyond Tavistock.

From our campaigning in a different part of the south west, we're very much aware of the ability of a bigger and wider, but longer term and less likely, project to dilute attention from the immediate objectives, and indeed to muddy the waters to a detrimental extent.   We had two such issues involved with the TransWilts, so I can talk here with at least a little experience.

The approach we've taken was to make the case very clearly and completely (operational and business) for the immediate scheme, but ensure that the operational case was compatible with the longer term project too.  Thus, the TransWilts case and service works well without a station at Royal Wootton Bassett, but the timing and pathing of the trains is such that an extra stop could be accommodated there, probably resulting in an arrival in / departure from Swindon a handful of minutes later / earlier.  At is current frequency, we know our service probably doesn't run often enough to tempt the people of RWB (I note that station code is available!) onto trains for the short trip into Swindon ... but we're a step in the right direction for them.

The second case concerns a potential operator of an open access service calling at TransWilts stations and going beyond. At times that was a more difficult circle to square, with a fear that running a local train would take away enough of the traffic and enough of the paths to make that other service unviable.  It's a difficult thing to prove one way or the other; we have plenty of evidence to suggest that an hourly service, alternating the local and Birmingham trains would / would have actually generated more traffic per train, and we've also plenty of practical experience now of the TransWilts 15x service meshing with diverted HST services up to and beyond the number of trains that would have been involved in the combined service.

Extrapolating our experience to what I read from Tavistock, I would hope that any works being done would not block a further extension of the line.  In other words that no new station building would be placed on the old trackbed just to the north of the new station, I would look at consideration of the future prospect of a second platform at Tavistock, and I would acknowledge in the work done that the case was mindful of other aspirations and doesn't block them.

We have our TransWilts service now.   RWB may happen at some point (delighted if it does), and I wouldn't rule out through services to Birmingham.  Current passengers / ridership / comments I've had back do indeed point to journeys to and from that city, and it's one of the destinations shown on the A to Z.

 
The comment that it may not be possible to provide a pedestrian & cycle route alongside the railway is perhaps good news in the sense hat the entire formation would be available for upgrading to incorporate (a) passing loop(s) if the line is further extended towards Okehampton at a later date.

 

A footnote wouldn't have gone amiss and perhaps it may have been remarked about at some point during the meeting, but wasn't minuted. Although it would be an entirely separate project from this one, you have to wonder about considerations and groundwork that could be put in place now, to accommodate any possibility of it manifesting in the future.

I thought it interesting that some of the cases for opposing the railway were on the basis that they'd rather the section from Tavistock to Okehampton was reinstated.

 
And doesn't it strike you as odd that there is no mention in that document of the possibility, however remote, of the whole line via Okehampton and Tavistock being rebuilt?

 Note that they say there may not be room for a pedestrian and cycle trail on the formation:
That kind of answers the question about whether it is single track, picking its way via the solidest ground.

 
Following yesterday's meeting, quite a detailed report can be found here: http://www.devon.gov.uk/loadtrimdocument?url=&filename=PTE/14/49.CMR&rn=14/WD321&dg=Public

 

There are a couple of threads running along parallel lines here, and my comments here have more to do with this one: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=3098.msg157089#msg157089

I accept that you can't extrapolate. In truth I'm just surprised at how cheap the Tavistock project is.

 

Bet that's got the younger posters feverishly browsing wikipedia.

Who would the dead hand be BTW,i am rather ignorant in such matters.

 

I do not think that would be a fair to extraplote that cost to the rest of the route to Okehampton. The Tavistock section is probably one of the easiest sections.  For example it ignores the obstructions in Tavistock itself. 

You also need to ask what sort of railway would be reinstated a single track branch line or something more substantial? And would that include improvements to the route from Crediton to Okehampton?

 
Yes, behind all this there is a hand so dead it makes Alma Cogan look positively spritely. Dare we speak its name?

 
Can never understand how a double track formation, with plenty of room for a single track railway and a cycle way, can take so long to reopen. 2019??? Unbelievable Jeff No wonder not everyone takes proposed English re openings that seriously as it stands, and I for one, want this one to really happen