The original original estimate[when Kilbride were still involved] was £18m.Now I don't regard myself as a completely naïve sort of person when it comes to money and greed but can anyone give a rational explanation as to how building 6 miles of railway line when the basic infrastructure is still there can mushroom by £42m in ten years FFS^▸ (for goodness' sake (a more polite definition)) [excuse my French]? Jeez, the politics, creative accounting and inertia in this country are staggering-enough to make you feel like voting Corbyn sometimes.

Anyway, for anybody interested there is a walk from Bedford square in Tavistock starting at 1400 hrs on Saturday May 5th to Tavistock North station with a rare chance to look inside and continuing across the viaduct [where someone sadly took their own life last week]-apparently some sort of model train is running across it. There is also to be a talk given by Bernard Mills and Stephen Fryer at 1930 hrs in the United Reform Church in Russell Street,Tavistock on the history and hopefully the future of the line.

I believe old Canute's Norse name was Cnut. Better not get too anagramatical when thinking of that and Streeter at the same time.

Anyway, it's good to know that a factual, informed and completely non Plymouthcentric opinion is being given to the All party parliamentary South West Rail Group by its chairman Gary Streeter MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) for South West Devon [basically the South Hams,Ivybridge and Plympton];

"I don't think trundling a train quite slowly inland is a back up plan,we are better off making the line we have as resillient as possible".

Good on yer Gary,it's votes that count!

The main physical problems with any reopening would be that a rather long bridge would be required to span the dual carriageway which severed the line near Meldon junction and getting through the housing estate at Halwill and the supermarket at Holsworthy,although from memory there may be enough room there to squeeze a railway through the latter.Don't think there's much else,although some of the formation is now used as a walking/cycle path.That is enough to be going on with though and if the powers that be aren't especially serious about the value for money obtained by reopening the main Okehampton line [which would more and more appear to be the case with the transport minister making woffling noises about his "to do list" and Network Rail putting forward idiotic proposals about building a railway in the sea],then Bude unfortunately isn't going to be of high priority.It may happen if there is a genuine change in government thinking but i'm not holding my breath.Good luck to any pressure group that may arise though.

Pie in the sky [or pie in the sea]?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-37639243

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.

Yertiz, at 10;13

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05ys4cj/spotlight-16062015

Not sure where they got the information that the inland route would cost "billions"-as I recall the Network Rail study carried out awhile back stated somewhere in the region of ^850m and that was with a 66% overrun factor built in. Hopefully this is speculative and ill informed nonsense rather than being based on subtle hints being dropped by "sources within NR^» (Network Rail - home page)".

Campaign for Rural England in favour of the Okehampton route;

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/New-reopen-railway-line-north-Plymouth/story-26712958-detail/story.html

Not sure how much clout or influence CFRE have on these matters but certainly wouldn't have thought their support could do any harm.

Balls;


http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Labour-s-8203-Ed-Balls-says-Osborne-backs/story-26238922-detail/story.html

"I'm not bidding for the Torbay vote, honest guv".

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.

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.

We'll just have to wait and see,i suppose. Disappointing to see the words "feasibility study", much rather have seen the colour of some money, as is apparently being provided for the A303 upgrade. Plenty of feasibility studies in the past have ended up as dust gatherers in departmental archive stores but maybe that's just the gnarled old cynic in me coming to the fore. Certainly it would seem as if the Okehampton route is in pole position now compared to the other options, which was always the favoured way to go for me but there is this nagging feeling inside me that in 10 years time there will be a new thread starting on here-"Suggestions for an alternative Dawlish line"! Hopefully i'm wrong though.

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!