Great Western Coffee Shop

Interesting article

http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/Calls-grow-reopen-rail-line/article-1800016-detail/article.html

Report from local paper:

http://www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk/environment/County-derails-plan-reopen-Barnstaple-Bideford-railway/article-1880288-detail/article.html

And yet up in Scotland they can't reopen lines quick enough which says a lot that it can be done if the right people approve it. Sadly car is still king in the South.

Maybe they should put Mr. Harrison on a weekend train from Ebbw Vale.

Just came across the Maunsell Report commissioned by DCC in 1999. It is posted online -http://www.devon.gov.uk/maunsellrailreportjan1999.pdf.

The CAPITAL cost of reopening the line from Barnstaple to Bideford came in at just under ^8M - not ^80M as quoted in press reports (see OP).

No idea how the cost became inflated by a factor of ten, but be assured those against the idea believe it >:(

In the 12 years since that report was printed the figure will be a lot higher... However 80 mil can't be correct?

The Penryn Loop in Cornwall cost around ^8M for essentially 400m of track and the associated work, ^80M for reinstatement of an entire line seems low in comparison.

The cost could be reduced if they scrapped the cycle track.... Using the ten fold formula rerouting that would cost 5 million!

Wasn't this the route James May laid his Hornby track on?   ;D

Yes that was the route James May laid his Hornby track on.


Sometimes the council need to look at the bigger picture.

Railway could be used to provide a public service which that Devon is missing.

Perhaps some County Highways Departments (and their supporting Councillors) in deepest rural England are still luxuriating in the golden days of Beeching and the 1960's.

Pro-rail activists, whether re-openers or heritage revivers can recount desperate struggles against state funded official opposition and inertia. The Bideford case included a Planning Consent 20 years ago that infringed the clearance but not the trackbed making rail development impossible. The final developer on hearing of the problem generously moved his building line back enough to pass trains. In the middle of the station there is now  a hump, I believe, where the underbridge has been raised!

A similar case is going on at Uckfield where a road-centred CC is taking decisions that would prejudice easier re-opening and NR has proposed stratospheric costs for 7.5 miles of single track. The Lavender Line has reopened 15% of it and could do more given some bridge work and crossing consent.

There are some bright spots elswhere of course.

OTC