Campaign for Tavistock reopening

[whole diary]

[devonian]

Once a week, I work near Tavvy and with people who live in Tavvy (I live near Newton Abbot). I would love to get the train there as it costs a small fortune to drive. But alas, I cannot get a train/bus combination to get me there in time as the first west-bound train from NA to Plymouth as 0728 (AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know)). To have a link to Tavvy would be great. I'm aware that I am probably the only person that would do this route and so have no expectations or demands for it to be met. However, it does mean I HAVE to drive to Tavvy. There are alternatives but the cost/complexity/time-requirements are prohibitive. This leads on to the other issue.

Working with people living in Tavvy, I brought up the topic of reinstating the line several times. Each time, I am greeted with the same barrage of "it would cost too much to go to Plymouth on the train" and "the trains are too expensive". Would it not be a good idea for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to advertise deals and prices - especially CDRs^▸ (Off Peak Day Return [ticket type] (formerly 'Cheap Day')) in Devon and Cornwall and also the Devon and Cornwall railcard as well as advance fares? I fear the guys I work with suffer from the same blindness as the councillors previously mentioned in that they discount it as a viable, economical means of transport before giving it any consideration or research whatsoever. When I bring these up, the seem surprised but it never sticks and two weeks later, we're back to the whole "it's too expensive" routine.

I see Thetrainline are advertising heavily at the minute nationally. I would have thought that if FGW did targeted local advertising (and provided a decent service - Melksham) then the demand would pay for the cost. Additionally, they would drum up support for projects such as Tavvy.

Does the wonderful DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) have a big hand in all of this?

[Andy]

You make the excellent point that perceptions about the cost of rail travel (conditioned by the sensational headlines over rises every January) being prohibitive are often highly distorted. One of the greatest contributions local groups can (and do) make is in diffusing information about cheap deals.


 

[Brunel-Scott]

Bemmy. With respect, my comment which you remarked upon was about the existing Gunnislake line, rather than the non-existant Tavistock line. We seem to have our points crossed (maybe a catch point ha ha - sorry terrible).

[bemmy]

Bemmy. With respect, my comment which you remarked upon was about the existing Gunnislake line, rather than the non-existant Tavistock line. We seem to have our points crossed (maybe a catch point ha ha - sorry terrible).

No I was aware that your last sentence referred to the lack of a late evening Gunnislake service, but I quoted it because I thought it neatly summed up the circular argument in respect of a lot of potential services -- ie there's no service cause there's no demand cause there's no service. From other posts in this thread it would appear that opponents of the Tavistock re-opening are citing the lack of demand without feeling the need to do any actual research.

[Brunel-Scott]

Ah, Bemmy - understood, and I agree.

[vacman]

Has anyone been on the Kilbride website lately? theres a bit at the bottom of the Tavistock page that says give your view, I did so asking if anything was happening as it's gone very quite... had a response in minutes saying that lot's of work was going on behind he scenes, I would urge everyone to visit the site and give their positive views!

[Tinminer]

Ah, thanks vacman - will check out their site!

[Northerner]

It seems like reopening to Tavistock is a great idea and would be great if a private devolopement would fund it. The thing about putting the houses strung along the line is the housing company would probally try to get the houses at Tavistock [/i]AND[/i] extra houses along the line as it owuld cost them more to put the houses seperatly. Another problem i can think about the reopening to Tavistock is that DFT^▸ (Department for Transport) (DAFT as my computer spellcheck keeps trying to correct me) would proboally try to get some more dreaded pacers to work the line as at the moment these seem like the only spear DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit).

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hello, Northerner, and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum!

[Northerner]

Thank you. It is always nice to be welcomed.

[Andy]

Any recent news on this subject? It seems to have gone very quiet of late. Maybe the collapse of the housing market has killed off the project for the time being.

[andrewr]

Hi all,

It all does seem to be going very quiet on the Tavistock front, doesn't it? After writing a book last year, I've finally got time to do what I hoped to last year, which is to push the Tavistock scheme forward as much as I can.

There's clearly a fair bit of interest and a willingness to kick things off in terms of generating awareness and support for the line's reopening, so if anybody's interested in helping start a campaign to reopen the line, please drop me a line at mail at andrewroden dot c o m and let's see what we can do. The one lesson many of the posters on here learned from the Save Our Sleeper campaign a couple of years back is that people power does work!

I don't want to tread on any toes or jeopardise any work that's already ongoing (please let me know if you think that's likely!) - but I think a good local campaign could help the companies and organisations already working towards reinstating the line, and make the difference. I'm up for playing my part - anyone care to join in?

Andy Roden
www.andrewroden.com

[oilengineer]

Well I'm up for doing my bit, Tavistock is a place I visit about every 4 weeks and it's by car from Exton every time, forget the train to Plymouth or Bere Alston, because there's something called a bus involved!

Horrible things buses!

Is Andrewr & I the only people who care about the railway?

[Andy]

Speaking personally, I'm all in favour of a reopened line and would support it if/when the time comes but without knowing where things stand right now as regards the Kilbride project, it's hard to decide whether a campaign would be appropriate.

If the government is serious about using investment in infrastructure as a means of kick-starting the economy, this project would seem to be an ideal candidate (with/without partial financing from housing development). I do have some misgivings about the proposed location of Tavistock station and would have preferred to see it nearer the town centre. I know that means more cost and demolishing a house or two.   

[andrewr]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to run some ideas past the good denizens of the Coffee Shop for a campaign to push for reopening Bere Alston to Tavistock with a view to kickstarting something in late-Spring/early-Summer depending on feedback gained here and elsewhere. Given the expertise and enthusiasm on here - and from others I've spoken to, what I propose is this:

A campaign to reopen Bere Alston to Tavistock called Tavistock Rail Action Campaign (which gives us the handy abbreviation of TRAC).

Its aims will be:
 1) To raise awareness of the benefits to Tavistock, Plymouth, and the area around the route of reopening the railway
 2) To establish local, regional, and where possible, national support for the reopening
 3) To liaise with other organisations such as DCRP^» (Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership - about), local authorities, community groups and rail industry stakeholders on the best way forward
 4) To investigate ways of funding and constructing the line - and, possibly - to raise funds for it
 5) To identify how to ensure services can run to Tavistock and Gunnislake without compromising either, and
 6) To establish and address concerns about the impact of rebuilding the railway.

There is, it seems, a hefty weight of argument in favour of reopening the railway, and those issues seem to me and the people I've talked to at length about it, the biggest ones to address. So, the questions are - what does everyone think of those pointers to start with, what should be added or taken away, and will anyone offer to help? My credentials are mainly as a railway journalist and author with a lot of contacts in the local press, but I helped co-ordinate the Save Our Sleeper campaign in 2005, which went very well indeed, and I think we can take a lot of the lessons learned from that and apply them here to something truly positive.

I'd be grateful for any thoughts and comments, either to my email address (via my website at andrewroden dot com) or on the forum itself. We know that the South West has some of the very best rail campaigners in Britain - and to my mind, Tavistock looks like a really suitable route to make and test the case for an English reopening.

Over to you, guys - this could be a bloody good campaign if we can get it moving...

Andrew Roden