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Transport Secretary Chris Grayling will today announce an £80m investment to raise the Dawlish seawall by more than 8ft (2.5m) to protect the vulnerable stretch of railway line between London and Devon and Cornwall.
Mr Grayling - who is due to visit the region to unveil his plans - says work begins in the Spring and will “create a robust set of defences to help protect the railway and the local homes behind it”.
As well as raising the height of the wall, special engineering techniques will be used to create curves designed to prevent the sea breaking over the railway line.
Five years ago this month storms broke through the current sea defences, leaving the track suspended above the waves. The region west of Exeter had no through trains for six weeks.
Artist impression of what the new Dawlish sea wall could look like
Artist impression of what the new Dawlish sea wall could look like (Image: Network Rail)
Services continue to be regularly disrupted when high tides and strong winds combine.
The Transport Secretary says the £80m investment will help ensure there is no repeat of the crisis.
In total, however, Network Rail says more than £300m will be needed to make the line fully robust against future storms, including protection for the crumbling cliffs west of Dawlish.
READ MORE
The shocking full story of the Dawlish rail disaster told by the first policemen on the scene
Mr Grayling says the investment at Dawlish is part of £5.7billion the Government is spending modernising the Great Western Railway - although much of the funding is going on electrification of the line between London, Bristol and South Wales.
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WAVES BATTER TRAIN ON THE DAWLISH LINE
A report – Investing in the South West – is also being published by the Department for Transport today detailing a £2bn spending programme to improve the A30 and A303 roads, create faster bus connections and build new long-distance cycle paths.
“These ambitious plans underline this government’s cast iron commitment to the South West,” says Mr Grayling.
TIME LINE
How the Dawlish sea wall disaster evolved on February 4 and 5
Tuesday February 4 - The storms raged all day
This Met Office map shows the worst gusts of the winter hit the South West that day - and it was worse in South Devon than anywhere else in mainland Britain. Gusts of 79mph were recorded at Berry Head. Only the Scilly Isles, far out into the Atlantic Ocean, recorded slightly worse winds at 80mph. Residents on Dawlish seafront said waves were already hitting their windows TWO HOURS BEFORE high tide.
7.30pm Two hours before high tide
Residents began to realise conditions were bad when, two hours before high tide, seawater was already hitting their windows.
9.20pm Marine Parade flooded
At the other end of the seafront, two people had to be rescued when their vehicle became trapped in floodwater in Marine Parade, at about 21:20pm on the Tuesday night, February 4.
9.30-10pm The sea wall began to collapse and electric lights went out.
One terrified resident at Riviera Terrace looked out into the dark just after 9.30pm and said: "I looked out and the sea wall had gone."
10pm Residents began to ring the emergency services
The people living in Riviera Terrace and the adjoining Sea Lawn Terrace began to fear for their lives as they looked out of their windows in the dark to see that the sea wall, railway track and road began to disappear. The raging sea was within feet of their front doors.
10pm to 10.30 Emergency services arrived
Residents report there was some confusion on the night as emergency services dealt with flooding and people trapped in cars at Marine Parade. When the reports of the line collapsing first came in the emergency services went to the railway station. When 999 services realised the problem was further along the line at Sea Lawn Terrace they realised the severity of the situation and began knocking on doors in the area and in Exeter Road above warning people that they might have to move out of their homes.
10.45pm Decision to evacuate daken and major incident declared
About 50 people - 26 families in all - were given just five minutes to leave, with just the clothes they stood up in, coats and blankets to wrap around sleeping children.
11.30pm The Sea Lawn Lodge guest house was asked by police to help
Val and Gerald Belcher have since been honoured for the way they took care of people at their guesthouse on the night of the storm in the hours before the emergency planning team kicked into gear. Families with small children were given beds for the night.
3am Dawlish Leisure Centre was opened
Teignbridge District Council's emergency planning team kicked into gear and by 3am they had the Dawlish Leisure Centre open and families slept on mats on the floor overnight.
7am First light - the full scale of the disaster hit national headlines
This was the scene on Wednesday morning as people began to realise the enormity of what had happened - not just for those people living in Dawlish but for the whole of the South West peninsula's transport network and the local economy.
TIME LINE
Dawlish Railway: Five Years On
FEBRUARY 1847
Brunel’s atmospheric railway along the coast opened between Exeter and Teignmouth and extended to Newton Abbot in January, 1848
FEBRUARY 2014
The century-old seawall at Dawlish was destroyed by crashing waves, which scooped out hundreds of tonnes of ballast, forcing the evacuation of families from Riviera Terrace and Sea Lawn
FEBRUARY 2014
Transport Minister Patrick McLoughlin visits Dawlish to inspect the damage
MARCH 2014
Specialist fire crews set off a controlled landslide above the Dawlish to Teignmouth rail track where workmen battled to reopen the line
APRIL 2014
Line reopens with VIP guests including Prime Minister David Cameron
July 2014
Orange Army commended with special award for their repair work
JULY 2014
Network Rail report released. The Government effectively committed itself to spending at least £400million to ensure there is never a repeat of the main Devon and Cornwall railway line collapsing at Dawlish
DECEMBER 2014
Chancellor George Osborne criticised for his silence on the rail line in his Autumn Statement
MARCH 2016
George Osborne pledged £5 million in the first stage of improvements to the resilience of the line in Budget
AUGUST 2016
Network Rail awarded £10 million contract to investigate the coastal cliff frontage in Dawlish to Teignmouth section
OCTOBER 2016
Network Rail begins public information events on its investigations and resilience plans
NOVEMBER 2016
Peninsula Rail Task Force submits Closing The Gap, its 20-year plan for the region’s railway, to the government
SEPTEMBER 2017
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn promises, if the party wins power, to find £600million for rail resilience work at Dawlish while having an all weather bypass route in the future
NOVEMBER 2017
Transport minister Jesse Norman says that reopening a railway line avoiding the coast, via Okehampton and Tavistock is a ‘very important potential idea’. It would be in addition to the Dawlish line, he said while visiting Exeter St Davids
JANUARY 2018
Peninsula Rail Task Force demands answers after still receiving no Government response to its Closing The Gap report
JANUARY 2018
South West Devon
MP▸ Gary Streeter said he expects the government to announce that around £200million will be spent on the line in the next 2-3 years
JANUARY 2018
Transport secretary Chris Grayling states that Dawlish is ‘number one national transport priority’ and promises a response to Closing The Gap by the end of February
FEBRUARY 2018
Network Rail outlines its five-year plan for ongoing maintenance for the region's network in Control Period 6
FEBRUARY 2018
Minister of State for Transport Jo Johnson responds to the PRTF Closing the Gap report but offers no 'miracle cure' for Dawlish
MARCH 2018
Homes in Dawlish evacuated, part of the rail line damaged and seaside cafe washed away during Storm Emma
MARCH 2018
Transport minister renews pledge to do 'whatever it takes' to safeguard Dawlish rail line as councillors hear it is the only economically viable route
APRIL 2018
Trains continue to be cancelled as high tides cause problems on the vulnerable main line along the sea wall at Dawlish. The cancellations cover Cross Country services.
OCTOBER 2018
Sir John Armitt, chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission warns the The South West must thrash out a time frame to future-proof the Dawlish railway line.
The former chief of Network Rail said the region must come together to address the long running rail issue once and for all.
OCTOBER 2018
Crosscountry trains through Dawlish are cancelled as Storm Callum batters the region and days later a six-foot sinkhole under the line close to Teignmouth is discovered, closing the mainline
NOVEMBER 2018
Government told to 'get a grip' after high seas close the line to trains again
NOVEMBER 2018
Work gets under way to improve four breakwaters at Boat Cove, Coastguards Point, Colonnade Underpass and Langstone Rock over the next six months.
Investigations by Network Rail also continue into whether loose material from the clifftop above Parsons Tunnel at Holcombe can be removed to stabilise the cliff and reduce the risk of landslips.
The Government has provided £15m for Network Rail to design a long-lasting solution to this problem.
NOVEMBER 2018
Network Rail reveals long term plans for the rail line. The re-routing of the Dawlish rail line closer to the sea will not see a popular beach lost to the public, it insists.
The causeway option would see the line rebuild from the tunnel at Smugglers’ Lane in Holcombe, out on to the beach past Spray Point, and then would curve back in land towards Teignmouth.
The option could cost up to £500million but no funding has yet been pledged for the work or a timeframe put in place.
DECEMBER 2018
More services are cancelled through Dawlish
JANUARY 2019
Meetings are held between the Peninsula Rail Task Force, South West MPs, Rail Minister and the Secretary of State over the future of the rail line.
FEBRUARY 2019
The fifth anniversary of the Dawlish Rail line disaster is on February 4.
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