The Westcountry will not get a new climate change-proof intercity rail route for another 50 years (link below.)
http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/homepagenews/50-year-delay-rail-route/article-200624-detail/article.html

Campaigners have for years been pushing for a route to replace part of the current main line between Penzance and London.

But it is understood Network Rail has ruled out any changes to the route for the next 30 years at least, and possibly up to 50.

Instead, its strategic plan for the route over the next three decades will focus on upgrading protection on the line through South Devon, where it is often affected by extreme coastal weather conditions that hold up services.

At a meeting held in Exeter, a Network Rail representative apparently told regional business figures it did not see any need for a new line.

However, a spokeswoman for Network Rail said there had been a "misunderstanding" at the meeting and that it was looking at all options for the Westcountry rail routes.

She said that a feasibility study due out in 2009 would address the best way to develop the service in the region.

Roger Creagh-Osborne, of Campaign for Better Transport in Plymouth and Cornwall & Saltash Rail Users Group, said the jury was still out on whether a new route or upgrading defences on the current line was the best option, but that Network Rail should at least be looking into the possibility.

What gets me is that these things are seen as either or.

Either you shore up the sea wall or you have new railway.

Reinstatement of Okehampton Bere Alston serving Tavistock seems like a good idea in its own right, shoring up the sea wall also seems a good idea. Then building a new route around Dawlish could be 50 years off, but there would still be rail from London to Plymouth if the sea wall fails sooner.

So let's be adventurous and go for both. I am sure if we did do both schemes (and other reinstatement schemes capacity enhancements) we would feel happier as a country as we could boost we gave the railways to the world and now were making ours fit for the 21st century. What we neeed is a 21st C Brunel.

Of course Networkrail has got to get a lot smarter at doing schemes and keep the traffic moving not like the fiasco on the WCML. Rebuilding Reading is going to be a good test of that skill. I've heard it's going to take 7 years! I can't see how they can have full blockades over that period of time.
 
But the great advantage of doing Okehampton - Bere Alston sooner rather than later is that it provides the alternative route ready for the sea wall work to commence. 

Outrageous optimism on the part of the local arm, (haystacks and hunting), of the Daily Mail...nuff said...scramble the ROFL copter...