Great Western Coffee Shop

From the Cornish & Devon Post (http://www.thepost.uk.com/article.cfm?id=106271&headline=Memories%20shared%20as%20event%20marks%2050%20years%20since%20Launceston%20lost%20its%20railway&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2016), a fascinating and very detailed article by Zoë Uglow.

It is a relatively long article, so rather than quote it here in full on the Coffee Shop forum, I would like instead to encourage those of our readers who are particularly interested in the subject to please click on the link (http://www.thepost.uk.com/article.cfm?id=106271&headline=Memories%20shared%20as%20event%20marks%2050%20years%20since%20Launceston%20lost%20its%20railway&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2016).  :)

Launceston of course suffered from the twin drawbacks of the GWR/SR cold war and of the limited passenger and freight business on offer in the West Country.

If the two companies had shared routes (e.g. having a joint line to Lydford) then perhaps the town's rail link might have survived and even prompted the retention of the Exeter - Okehampton - Tavistock - Plymouth line.

The crocodile tears of the WC Local Authorities are unconvincing. They have allowed rights of way to be needlessly lost in spite of their expensive (non-) planning departments and achieve near zero in practical reinstatement.

OTC