Great Western Coffee Shop

Question from Bob_Blakey

Do FGW have any views / opinions that can be shared in public concerning the potential reopening of the complete route between Exeter & Plymouth via Okehampton.

This is primarily an issue for Network Rail and the DfT along with local stakeholders. Clearly we are inputting to the work on this.

We have to be mindful of the impact that any decision on the Okehampton route would have on journey opportunities on the coastal route. For this reason alone I think it is unlikely that the Okehampton route would become the main route to Plymouth. However if it can be reopened on the basis of providing new journey opportunities in North and West Devon then it would provide the additional benefit of a diversion for Dawlish.

In any case I think that work to make the Dawlish route more resilient must continue. There is no reason why it should not be capable of remaining open in all but the most extreme conditions in the future, but there are things that can be done to increase the certainty around this.

Of course we would be delighted to be able to operate an Exeter to Plymouth service via Okehampton if the infrastructure is available at some point in the future!

Which prompts me to ask about the expectations for SET operation through Dawlish during periods of severe weather; in the past HSTs handled the conditions much better than the Voyagers which on the face of it are not dissimilar to the SETs.

The SETs will only run between Paddington - Newbury, Oxford, Bristol and South Wales. They won't go near Dawlish.

Is this also true of the AT 300's then? Can they cope with sea spray?