Major announcement about the future of the Dawlish rail line made by Network Rail to councillors
Network Rail has a programme of improvements to protect the line between Exeter and Newton Abbot to improve resilience over the next centuryThe re-routing of the Dawlish rail line closer to the sea will NOT see a popular beach lost to the public.
Network Rail has a programme of improvements to protect the line between Exeter and Newton Abbot to improve resilience over the next century.
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.
Holcombe Beach (Image: Daniel Clark)
But at Thursday morning’s Teignbridge Locality Committee meeting, David Lovell, Network Rail Programme Manager for the Western and Wales region revealed that although the line is still set to be realigned, it won’t move as far away from the cliffs and across the beach as initially planned.
Mr Lovell said: “Our designer is currently development the track alignment to reduce reclamation and are continuing to work up options based on extensive investigations. We are proposing a design that will be similar to a rockfall shelter and will reduce the impact on the beach. The issue is that we have is that we cannot physically present what it will look like at the moment.”
Asked by Cllr Sylvia Russell if that meant Network Rail would no longer be realigning the line, he replied: “It will still go out seaward, but it won’t go out as far as we thought in 2016 for a period of the line. A lot of the beach at Holcombe will remain, but I cannot present that today as to how it will look like, but that is where we are now.”
A train in Dawlish today
He added the walkway would be retained and the sea wall would have a wave return to deflect energy away from the cliffs and the railway line.
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What are the technical proposals for the Dawlish rail line?
1. The line between Holcombe and Teignmouth will be relocated into the sea away from crumbling cliffs. Anne-Marie Morris explains how it needs to be ‘more robust.’
2. The continued strengthening of the sea wall at Dawlish near train station, following the high-profile collapse in February 2014.
3. Works to protect the tunnels by installing ‘avalanche shelters’ to protect the tracks from falling rocks.
4. A ‘helpdesk’ office to open to provide locals and visitors with information about the projects--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The news was welcomed by councillors on the committee, who said the residents of Holcombe would be happy.
Campaigners want to save Holcombe Beach (Image: Daniel Clark)
Mr Lovell also told councillors that early in 2019, the final design of the new seawall planned for Marine Parade in Dawlish would be presented.
But he said that the wall will be 7.5m tall with a wave return to deflect the energy of the waves and to stop them going over the railway, that the walkway will be 4m wide when it is currently 3.1m wide, and there will be a barrier between the pedestrians and the edge of the to stop people falling off the wall.
He added: “Once we build a better sea wall, the overtopping of the sea water won’t happen. We are putting a design in place that will be there for 100 years, accounts for sea level rise, and won’t get the spray overtopping the railway line.”
He added that Network Rail were also coming up with design solutions to improve resilience for the area around Dawlish station. Mr Lovel said: “It would be an own goal to improve the Marine Parade sea wall only for the railway to be still closed as there is flooding at Dawlish station.”
However Cllr Rosalind Prowse questioned whether anything had actually changed since the line was washed away in the storms in 2014.
A train travels over the Dawlish sea wall (Image: Daniel Clark)
She said: “Sad to say I don’t think we’ve moved on a great deal since then and I still have the same concerns as did in 2014, but the weather has got worse and already with the unusually early storm the trains have had to stop running twice.
“I think that remedial are a waste of money and we should be doing the major works to get the line secured. Until the money is forthcoming, we could still be talking about it in four years’ time, but we all know that the money will appear if they line gets washed away.”
Mr Lovell said that the funding will come from central government as Network Rail don’t have the pot of money for it, and that they been advised the Dawlish rail line is Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling’s number one priority. He added: “I am convinced that this will happen and me and my team doing all we can to progress the schemes as quickly as we can, but they do take a long time.”
Cllr Prowse however said: “But a big storm doesn’t take a long time, it takes just a few hours.”
And Cllr Jackie Hook asked if Network Rail could guarantee there won’t be a catastrophic cliff fall.
A CrossCountry Voyager train passes the sea front at Dawlish
Mr Lovell said: “I cannot. In 2014, we had no advance warning it would happen. We are monitoring the cliffs and looking for any movement, and if we identified an issue, we would cliff the line, but we cannot guarantee the cliffs won’t fail. We are doing all we can to monitor and make things safe.”
The next phase of work to protect the sea wall at Dawlish has begun, Mr Lovel told councillors.
Four breakwaters at Boat Cove, Coastguards Point, Colonnade Underpass and Langstone Rock are being repaired. The work is set to take six months and will be carried out by world leaders in coastal, tunnel, cliff and railway engineering from Network Rail and BAM Nuttall.
Investigations are also continuing 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.
