The next phase of the consultation into plans to move Brunel's sea wall away from the cliffs at Teignmouth begins today. The six-week process opens six years after a massive landslide at Holcombe dislodged tens of thousands of tonnes of sandstone onto the track. This together with problems at Dawlish where the line was washed away meant that much of Devon and all of Cornwall was cut off from the rest of the rail network for six weeks.The damage cost tens of millions of pounds to repair with netting fixed to the cliffs to restrict rock falls.
This consultation which continues today at the Langstone Cliff Hotel at Dawlish Warren looks at Network Rail’s revised multi-million-pound resilience plans and the scheme to move the line away from the troublesome cliffs out to sea on a new wall. A sloping rock structure is proposed to absorb wave energy together with a new walkway and cycle path. Following earlier public discussions a slightly amended scheme's being put forward which leaves a bigger area of beach available for local people and holiday makers.
This option’s been chosen rather than regrading the cliffs because that would mean the railway would be closed for at least a year while the work is carried out. It would also mean the loss of some private properties. Other options such as the reopening of closed routes through Okehampton and the Teign Valley have been rejected on cost benefit grounds as has the resurrection of plans for a Dawlish Avoiding line first proposed in the 1930s.