Why is a bridge to Portishead from the Severn Beach Line a silly idea?

No. 9  Newton Abbot

The answer is to redouble the line completely between Castle Cary, Yeovil Pen Mill, Yeovil Junction and all the way to Exeter

I agree that privatisation should have been based upon the "big 4" of 1923. There are far too many franchises. How about Chiltern becoming enlarged to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)?

 If and when EWR comes to fruition the line between Didcot and Swindon should be four track. How difficult would this be to do now or in the future?

Why not run the proposed trains to/from Yeovil Junction, to/from Yeovil Pen Mill

Could not the express overtake the stopper at Par?

Doubling the line from Castle Cary to Exeter via Yeovil Pen Mill, Exeter to Plymouth via Okehampton or Exeter to Newton Abbot (New Line avoiding Dawlish and Teignmouth), St. Austell to Newquay via Burngullow and St. Dennis Junction.

As somebody who lives in the South West, on the few occasions that I travel into Paddington I am surprised at the lack of lines into Paddington when compared with say Waterloo. I am not sufficiently knowledgeable of the nature of the lines to/from Paddington but wonder would it be feasible/possible to increase the number of lines between Paddington to say Reading from 4 to 6?

Both the Report and the Appendix make interesting reading. It will be interesting to see what transpires over the 10/20 years. Time for some proper infrastructure projects to happen in the SW when compared to the rest of the country.

Something more fundamental needs to be done at Cowley Bridge rather than continued repairs which are only good until the next time it rains heavily.
The 2014 proposals to remove the three weirs should be completed as soon as possible as the first stage, with the line between Castle Cary, Yeovil  and Exeter being doubled throughout as a backup.

10/10 much to my surprise as two were complete guesses.

Living in Kingskerswell, I have just witnessed at a distance a double headed Class 73 and I think 12 coaches  with a further 2 Class 73 in the rear, crawling past and up the climb out of the old Kingskerswell station towards Torquay. The coaches were chocolate and cream. It sounded as if two if not 3 of the Class 73 had failed. The train finally managed to clear the top of the climb where the new Edginswell station will be and obviously it is down hill all the way to Torquay. It was a special clearly and does anybody know what it was? If there are problems with the Class 73s could be an interesting journey back as the climb out from Torquay is worse than the climb towards Torquay!!

No 4 Biggleswade

It's not just rail lines that this kind of thing happens to, compare this with the South Devon Link Road at the Penn Inn in Newton Abbot.