Investment in resilience and economic development - West Country rail network(excerpt)

Summary

There are three primary issues.

1. Railway resilience
2. Railways to support the regional economy
3. Road issues.

This paper comments primarily on railway-related issues. The potential solutions may point to at least two different actions, addressing resilience, and stimulating economic development. These are discussed briefly below. JRC is a specialist transport consultancy and is available to discuss its ideas with stakeholders, elected members and officers.

Resilience: Dawlish sea wall

This is a vulnerable piece of railway. Repairs are required, but a robust medium term solution should investigate two options for new inland routeings:

• Via the former Exeter-Chudleigh-Newton Abbot railway
• Via a new inland express route between Exeter and Newton Abbot.
Detailed engineering and benefit-cost estimates will be required. There will be a trade-off between the costs and benefits of re-opening the former railway, compared to a new route.

Other resilience in the South West

There are other locations which re-occur regularly, or less frequently, as major blockages for days on end. Most commonly there are blocks caused by flooding at Cowley Bridge Junction on the GW Main Line just outside Exeter, or north and east of Taunton across the Somerset levels, or by landslips along the SWT route. A targeted list of locations, risks and assessed delay impacts should be developed, based on Network Rail and Train Operator evidence from recent years, with proposals for permanent remedial action which allow for projections of any worsening weather patterns over the next 10-20 years.

(Full Discussion note)

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