It is something that I often muse upon. The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway are projecting a project cost of less than Soham station to rebuild 5 miles of track lifted decades ago, including a new station at Parracombe, rebuilding bridges and a new viaduct.

Well for once it’s good to hear about overcrowding on a Cornish branch as there have already been some rumbles about the survival post-COVID if passenger numbers don’t pick up.

Found this article that explains how the clay trains operate and that the combined Par Docks & Trevisco trains up to Exeter and beyond still have to be split because of the Devon banks:

https://www.railmagazine.com/trains/current-trains/stop-start-66-put-through-its-paces

Great news but only two years suggests they are really being squeezed by Imerys to keep on top of costs and thus prices

Is an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) body shell so radically different from a Mk3 than you couldn’t equip an IET with those airline First Class seats that  become beds with the privacy walls (sorry, don’t know how to describe them but you see them on the adverts):::?

To be fair, that’s probably the reason it doesn’t run on Saturday nights into Sunday mornings, when the great majority of overnight work seems to get done (including Weekend blockades)

Is it correct to say that those reopening of passenger lines in Wales and Scotland that have been accomplished to date have gone on to far exceed their projected passenger numbers and revenue?

If this is correct, then this needs to be factored into decisions as it would appear projected figures for even successful projects are over cautious

Likewise, the majority of preserved Bulleid Pacifics are in BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) livery (although would be interesting to see a rebuilt one in Southern livery!)

Well the good news from Exmoor Associates and Friends of Bratton Fleming Station is that THEY have now put in an offer for the station:

http://www.exmoor-associates.co.uk/2020/07/bratton-fleming-purchase/

Why not a 15” railway with scaled down Bullied Pacific’s between Boscarne and Padstow?  Enough space for cyclists and walkers alongside as per the Bure Valley railway and others. Padstow gets suffocated by cars and coaches in the summer and the approaches are ruined by large car parks, so maybe identify a park and ride site either along the line or as an extension shuttle. Run it in conjunction with the existing Bodmin & Wenford with through ticketing etc

Was no allowance made for future redoubling when it was built?

I recently came across a reference to Railfreight once carried on the Bodmin & Wenford heritage railway and then onwards from Bodmin Parkway by EWS^▸ (English Welsh & Scottish Railway Ltd, now known as DB Schenker Rail (UK^▸ (United Kingdom))). Something to do with a lighting supplier using the old EWS Enterprise mixed trainload service that ran from from St Blazey. Can anyone shed any light on this?

I feel the only hope now for Tavistock is if trains can be brought back to Okehampton and demand far exceeds expectations (as has happened with reopening elsewhere). There might then be the political will to reopen to the site short of the old Tavistock station. I would hope the brick viaducts were to prove up to the task. If Tavistock is a huge success then who know? Offices and houses  aren’t about to stop HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) being built.

Well, it's a positive document. For me, third rail electrification as per Weymouth is the answer along with extended and new passing loops. I just hope that new trains plus increased capacity doesn't equal 3 + 2 seating, it being the bureaucrats standard answer to 'increased capacity'

To add, a large amount of freight west of Exeter has been lost since the 1990s. What remains are occasional Alphington spur scrap metal trains, very occasional MOD trains to the depot on the first stretch of the Gunnislake line (sorry, can't think of its name, Ernesettle?), the Moorswater cement, the china clay workings around Fowey and Burngullow etc. and china clay trains north beyond Exeter (saw one last summer). For a while we had the timber trains from the Heathfield branch but sadly the Dawlish seawall collapse put paid to those, and they were switched to Exeter. The rest are all related to track renewals, such as aggregates.

Lost were the regular Meldon aggregates flows, the bitumen, china clay and scrap metal flows to Plymouth and fuel trains down to Penzance (thanks GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ) and also china clay and fuel oil workings on the Heathfield line (I'm sure there's more). Its a bleak picture when you consider that in the early 80s the Barnstaple branch alone carried china clay, cement, timber, chemicals and fertiliser freight (and milk tanks until the 70s).