GWML Route to Exeter

[whole diary]

[woody]

As reflex109 says it beyond Exeter that needs linespeed improvements.

140mph! Great for some but you said it,sustained line speeds on a so called main of 55/65mph in the 21st west of Exeter to Plymouth are now little more than a joke.The problem is if you only speed up rail services from Exeter to Padddington as has historically happened places like Plymouth and Cornwall increasingly suffer from the perception of being remote by rail and you will simply encourage the development of domestic air links to the far south west which is not really desirable when a properly funded rail alternative is within reach.

[Btline]

But 155 mph-ing the route east of Exeter is (a) easier (b) will benefit more people than upping Exeter to Penzance by 10 - 20 mph here and there (c) could get London to Plymouth down to less than 2 hours 30 minutes - hardly remote (about the same as London to Worcester but about twice the distance).

[devon_metro]

I disagree, raising (on average) the linespeed of the berks & hants by 55% is not an easy task. I certainly wouldn't fancy doing 155mph on any of it!

Improvements in Devon & Cornwall would be far easier to achieve, shaving off some of the curvature in corners for example.

[woody]

But 155 mph-ing the route east of Exeter is (a) easier (b) will benefit more people than upping Exeter to Penzance by 10 - 20 mph here and there (c) could get London to Plymouth down to less than 2 hours 30 minutes - hardly remote (about the same as London to Worcester but about twice the distance).

Yes but you dont have competition from Air links to Gatwick and London city airports from Worcester which could well intensify as the 21st century unfolds.Certainly I have seen the Plymouth to Exeter rail route refered to in the local press as "Plymouths victorian rail link to Exeter and the rest of Endland".You can also drive up the A38 dual carraigeway from Plymouth to Exeter(M5) in not much over half the rail journey time.It really is a matter of perception and something needs to be done about it if rail is to be taken seriously west of Exeter in the 21st century.

[devon_metro]

But 155 mph-ing the route east of Exeter is (a) easier (b) will benefit more people than upping Exeter to Penzance by 10 - 20 mph here and there (c) could get London to Plymouth down to less than 2 hours 30 minutes - hardly remote (about the same as London to Worcester but about twice the distance).

Yes but you dont have competition from Air links to Gatwick and London city airports from Worcester which could well intensify as the 21st century unfolds.Certainly I have seen the Plymouth to Exeter rail route refered to in the local press as "Plymouths victorian rail link to Exeter and the rest of Endland".You can also drive up the A38 dual carraigeway from Plymouth to Exeter(M5) in not much over half the rail journey time.It really is a matter of perception and something needs to be done about it if rail is to be taken seriously west of Exeter in the 21st century.

And you believe what the local rag spouts!!!

The one benefit of rail, as soon as it snows, the airports are instantly shut or you don't run the risk of sitting on Halden/Telegraph hill till the early hours

Whenever I travel on trains heading to Cornwall i'm always impressed at the patronage, far from being devastated by the inconvenient air flights taking you a place 30 mins by train from London.

[FlyingDutchman]

If the Government want to upgrade the line they could.

Just think what the Victorian did as far as the railways

[woody]

You dont have to go back to the victorians.For those interested the 1935/36 Great Western Railway plans for a new route from Exminster to Newton Abbot bypassing Teignmouth and Dawlish are held at the Devon Record Office Archives at Sowton in Exeter under the following references.
Unfortunately the 2nd World War stopped these schemes progressing.
 
                     

                         Great Western Railway (Additional Powers)  QS/DP/860  1935
Contents:
1) Railway No 1 (Newton Abbot and Dawlish): via parishes of Kingsteignton, Bishopsteignton, Urban Districts of Teignmouth and Dawlish; length 8 ^ miles; commencing and terminating at junctions with South Devon Railway.
2)Bridge, River Diversions and Lands at Exeter: parish of Upton Pyne and Borough of Exeter.

Included are sections of intended works and published map showing 1).
Scale: 25" to the mile
Surveyor: R. Carpmael (Engineer)
Plans (pen, ink) and book of reference
 
                                         Great Western Railway.  QS/DP/868 1936                                     
Contents:
1) Railway No 2. (Dawlish and Exminster): via Urban District of Dawlish, parishes of Mamhead, Kenton, Powderham, Exminster; length 7^ miles; commencing at junction with railway No 1 (see QS/DP/860), terminating at junction with South Devon Railway; includes sections of railway and road diversions en route.
2) Lands at Totnes (and at Denham in County of Buckingham).
Scale: 25" to the mile
Surveyor: R. Carpmael (Engineer)
Plan (pen, ink) and book of reference
These documents are held at Devon Record Office


   The Great Western Railway had also at that time surveyed a new route onward from Newton Abbot bypassing Totnes as well as Dainton and Rattery Banks and re-joining the existing railway near Marley Tunnel to be engineered to a minimum 1 mile radius curvature for high speed.
  How times have changed.

[FlyingDutchman]

Shame this did not get off the grounds

http://web.archive.org/web/20041026081304/www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/news/release.php?item=29

[Btline]

Shame this did not get off the grounds

http://web.archive.org/web/20041026081304/www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/news/release.php?item=29

Brings back memories of the old FGW^▸ (First Great Western)/FGWL website!

[woody]

With reference to the 1935/36 Great Western Railway plans for a new route from Exminster to Newton Abbot, things had progressed to the point of actually buying and fencing off the necessary land but the land was eventually sold off post war in 1949 as by then the country was virtually bankrupt.Should imagine that such investment today would be prohibitively expensive as well,certainly in current economic circunstances anyway.By contrast the trunk road network in Devon and Cornwall has more or less been rebuilt to the detriment of the main line railway west of Exeter.To be honest I dont see nothing significantly changing this far south west railwaywise which is all very worrying as anything that stands still in the modern world is effectively going backwards.