Great Western Coffee Shop

There used to be two main railway lines to Plymouth from the East - the Great Western routes via Taunton, Exeter, the sea wall at Dawlish and Totnes, and the London and South Western Route, via Salisbury, Exeter, Okehampton, the flank of Dartmoor, and Tavistock.

Alas - the South Western route was severed in 1968, and there's no track now from Meldon Quarry, via Tavistock to Bere Alston. And the section from Yeoford Junction to Okehampton has a very limited (Summer Sunday only) service ...

40 years ago, the world was a very different place. And there are many who wish that what might have been a sensible economy move in those day could easily be reversed.  There are some good reasons - the following have been quoted:

1. Commuter traffic in and out of Exeter from Okehampton.

2. Commuter traffic from a rapidly growing Tavistock to Plymouth.

3. The provision of an alternative route to the sea wall via Dawlish, where global warning, rising sea levels and changing weather are making the route more prone to closure now and into the future.

4. The provision of extra capacity to Plymouth on a rail network where passenger numbers are strongly increasing.

The picture at the top of the pages of this site for September is of a First Great Western train at Okehampton station during this summer's service - my thanks to reflex109 for permission to reproduce it here.

Tavistock:

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=804.0

Okehampton:

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=2338.0

Sea Wall:

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=3146.0

Good news for Tavistock and Okehampton, possibly:

"Around 1,400 new houses could be built in Tavistock and Okehampton under plans which will be unveiled tomorrow.

The proposals by West Devon Borough Council also include the re-opening of Tavistock's railway and replacing the town's hospital, while Okehampton could get a brand new train station and town centre relief road.

The plans, outlining developments in the two towns up until 2026, are being published ahead of a series of public consultation meetings."

For full details, see http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Homes-plan-unveiled/article-331340-detail/article.html

In contrast, the BBC is reporting on its website that the developers who were going to build Cranbrook have pulled out and the scheme is on indefinite hold....

The leader of East Devon Council was on the radio this lunchtime saying that it was mainly due to the 'credit crunch'.  The developers can't (or don't want to) pay for the Section 106 agreement to build the infrastructure that must be in place before they start building houses. The council have quite rightly said that no Section 106 agreement = no planning permission.  On a brighter note it was mentioned that the rail connected inter-modal facility was still on the agenda.

This may well also scupper plans for a southern loop on the Waterloo line to enable the half hourly service to Axminster to run.

An encouraging BBC News video report on the prospects of re-opening the Tavistock line - including comment from Richard Burningham and Julian Crow: see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7626290.stm

See also http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7626323.stm

great news! i hope this works out!