Interesting report in the Plymouth Herald.

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/30-minute-Tavistock-Plymouth-rail-link-plan/article-732162-detail/article.html

I would like to see the Tavistock service perhaps extending to Newton Abbot thus providing more trains to Ivybridge with perhaps the re-opening of the Plympton station, thus releasing HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) from stopping at Ivybridge and expanding the commuting capacity to the east of Plymouth.

Re: future plans for SW Mainline and the sea wall at Dawlish i agree that the re-opening of the Tavistock-Okehampton would not be financially viable compared to losing the link to Torbay. Therefore perhaps the re-opening of the former Teign Valley Line Exeter-Newton Abbot line via Chudliegh would be the for the best for protecting the Torbay link, but this would be complicated given the track bed has been built over in parts for the A30 and A38. Either way its going to an expensive move to preserve the SW mainline, but one that will have to be taking one day.

though i accept reinstating as far as yealmpton maybe unrealistic but even though some preparation work may be needed, why can't the developer's pay for it out of their huge profits? the single developement co for the tavistock housing project are funding the reinstatement of the line from bere alston to tavistock single hand, so surely the the two developers for the plymstock quarry and the sherford developments can club together. the whole transport plan for the two huge developments seems to be a 'do as little as required' approach and will have disaterous results when theres an extra 10000 cars travelling across the already busy laria bridge eastern corridor into the city. sure its not necessarily plain sailing to reinstate the line but access problems to the park can be overcome with the lowering of the road, etc. also if the current plan is to run a bus lane over the laira bridge and the former trackbed then surely the structures are in good enough condition to be improved for rail use. 

Is it just myself who can see the forthcoming disaster that will be sherford and the estimated 5,000 homes, this is in addition to the proposed development of plymstock quarry aswell. The easterrn route into plymouth is already struggling with traffic at rush hour times and the planners expect it will be fine to have a couple of park and ride bus services to take this extra congestion. They are actually talking about flexi-buses to use the route of the old railway. Also there is talk about the existing disused railway to the former friary site being turned into a trunk road linking to exeter street.

Why can't they just use the former yealmpton brachline which has the majority of it bed in tact. If they can get the developer at Tavistock to invest in such a re-opening of a railway then why can't the sherford developer be forced to finance such a scheme. What they could then have is a metro service from tavistock to plymouth along the tamar valley line/stations and put stations at mutley, lipson, friary (serving the new office dev's on the barbican and drakes circus shopping centre), lucas terrace, plymstock, elburton and sherford, possibly re-opening the track right back to yealmpton. The majority of the infrastucture is already in place including the old laira railway bridge. Such a metro service works well in exeter and will ease congestion on both the northern and eastern arteries into plymouth. What makes me laugh is that this sherford new town is suppose to be a 'eco-town' but will be fully reliant upon road transportation and will destroy the existing trackbed of the former yealmpton line. This scheme would probably cost something in a similar region to that of the proposed tavistock re-opening (^15m) but if the developer is made to fork out for that there can be no excuse for the dept of transport to turn there noses at such a scheme as they normally do with proposed schemes outside the hub of london and the south east.