Campaign for Tavistock reopening

[whole diary]

[stebbo]

Longer term the project seems really sensible - I was discussing this with a neighbour only yesterday. Whilst I personally am not totally convinced by the global warming argument, I do believe a second route to Plymouth is justified. Going through Okehampton seems better than trying to reopen the old backdoor route to Newton Abbott.

[woody]

Last Friday while travelling to Exeter from Plymouth on a Paddington train I could not help noticing the man in the seat in front of me was reading a document which seemed to list and comment on various rail related improvement schemes in Devon and Cornwall.eg Extending the station footbridge at Newton Abbot station towards the Brunel Industrial estate,extending the platforms at St James Park to accommadate 4 car trains,a half hourly train service from Exeter to paignton etc etc.But what caught my eye was somethong about the Tavistock line re-opening.As we both rose to get off the train at Exeter I took the opportunity to speak to him saying that I could not help noticing him reading the document and so asked him what the current situation was regarding the Tavistock line re-opening as all seems very quiet at the moment.He assured me in a very upbeat way it was still moving forward although the situation with the housing market on which the whole scheme hinges had slowed things down a bit.So I asked him how long will we have to wait.He said very positively "You will definitely see trains running to Tavistick in 5 years".
  Given all this I assumed he was something to do with the Devon and Cornwall rail partnership.

Nice to meet you, Woody.   Good guess!

I was on my way to the ExeRail meeting at County Hall.  That paper, the ExeRail programme, is a public document and I have attached it.

Richard Burningham,
Manager, Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership

Nice to meet you too Richard all the best and look foreward to using the train to Tavistock.

[Andy]

Thanks for the updates, everyone. I'm really happy to read that this one is quietly moving forward. 

[TonyK]

GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) 3 by November seems a great indication of commitment. I like it!

[ACE]

Last Friday while travelling to Exeter from Plymouth on a Paddington train I could not help noticing the man in the seat in front of me was reading a document which seemed to list and comment on various rail related improvement schemes in Devon and Cornwall.eg Extending the station footbridge at Newton Abbot station towards the Brunel Industrial estate,extending the platforms at St James Park to accommadate 4 car trains,a half hourly train service from Exeter to paignton etc etc.But what caught my eye was somethong about the Tavistock line re-opening.As we both rose to get off the train at Exeter I took the opportunity to speak to him saying that I could not help noticing him reading the document and so asked him what the current situation was regarding the Tavistock line re-opening as all seems very quiet at the moment.He assured me in a very upbeat way it was still moving forward although the situation with the housing market on which the whole scheme hinges had slowed things down a bit.So I asked him how long will we have to wait.He said very positively "You will definitely see trains running to Tavistick in 5 years".
  Given all this I assumed he was something to do with the Devon and Cornwall rail partnership.

Very positive news indeed



_{Edit note: Quote marks fixed. Chris.}

[RichardB]

The new issue of Rail (out today) has an eight page feature on the Tavistock reopening with lots of great pictures.  Highly recommended.

[anthony215]

The new issue of Rail (out today) has an eight page feature on the Tavistock reopening with lots of great pictures.  Highly recommended.

Thanks for the heads up I will try and grab a copy when I call in Tesco at 06:00 before I continue my commute into Work

[caliwag]

Good ole Mr broadbent...a valuable contributer to Rail magazine.

[anthony215]

Bought the latest issue of Rail from Tesco at 6am this morning and read it while I was on my lunch break @ work today.

The feature on the Tavistock line I found to be really good so well done to those who put it together and I look forward to the day the line is re-opened and eventually the missing link to Okehampton is re-built.

[trainbuff]

Yes indeed. I bought my copy while on break yesterday evening. Even mentioned the petition I started about reopening to Okehampton on the internet! Lol.

Seriously though, it does point out that these plans are concrete and are moving forward.

An excellent article

[34104]

According to the Western Morning News this morning,the new franchise will be expected to provide costings for the proposed Tavistock-Plymouth service,so things seem to be moving on that front as well;



http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Fight-save-South-West-rail-services-Government/story-16608888-detail/story.html

[chaulender]

For anyone interested (in case the re-opening ever gets that far) and with a few ^s spare, I see Tavistock (SR^‡(resolve)) station (now a holiday let business) is currently for sale at ^1,250,000 (see rightmove.co.uk)

[JayMac]

Thank-you for that latest information, chaulender.

And a very warm welcome to the Coffee Shop forum. 

[Andy]

What a great opportunity to secure the trackbed for the future - and a more central site for a Tavistock station ;-)

[34104]

What a great opportunity to secure the trackbed for the future - and a more central site for a Tavistock station ;-)

Unfortunately,i don't think much trackbed would be included in any deal to buy the station,probably just the platform length.The idiotic [but possibly lucrative for someone] decision to allow housing to be built on the trackbed at the east end of Bannawell Street viaduct and the building of the WDBC offices at the Lydford end of the station pretty much ensures that if any plans to reopen the line fully were mooted,CPO action would be needed to bring them to fruition.