The Case For Okehampton Reopening
The title of this post in the same as that of an article by Jim Steer, in Issue 871 of Rail Magazine.
The article talks about the need to safeguard the rail route to the far South West of England and describes in detail, the problems of the current route, how it can be improved, so it is less likely to disruption and the problems of reopening the old London and South Western Railway route through Okehampton and Tavistock to Plymouth.
This is a quote, shown in bold in the article.
Politicians are coming round to the idea that more needs to be done to ensure the resilience of the South West’s rail services.
Reasons given for creating the Okehampton route include.
- Creation of a second route between the Far South West and Exeter.
- Housing in Okehampton and Tavistock.
- Creation of a route for freight trains to the Far South West.
- The route would serve one of the least accessible parts of England.
- Create better access to Exeter and Plymouth for both educational and job opportunities.
But improving the rail links to the Far South West won’t come cheap and costs in the order of a billion pounds are mentioned.
The biggest problem if the Okehampton route is to be reopened, is probably the Meldon Viaduct, which is between Okehampton and Tavistock stations.
Conclusion
Costs may be high, but if climate change or the weather should make the Dawlish route unuseable, can we really cut Plymouth and Cornwall off from the rest of England?
Network Rail are stated to have developed a plan to improve the Dawlish route, but surely, as that could be destroyed as it was in 2014, now is the time to get some of our finest engineers to create a workable plan for the Okehampton route.
Perhaps Lord Foster or another architect or structural engineer, has an idea that could create a replacement Meldon Viaduct. This could be key to an affordable Okehampton route.
The Anonymous Widower 
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