Four south west MPs have come out in support of plans to reopen the old Southern route between Okehampton and Tavistock alongside schemes to establish a daily service between Okehampton and Exeter and between Bere Alston and Tavistock.
Rail Magazine reports that Sir Geoffrey Cox, Scott Mann, Mel Stride and Johnny Mercer are sponsoring a bid to fund a preliminary a strategic outline business case under the Government’s £500m Beeching Reversal fund launched in January.
After the Dawlish storm damage of 2014, the estimated cost of reopening the inland route was put at £875m so if it’s to reopen alongside other Beeching closures like Matlock to Buxton there’ll have to be a lot more cash that the promised £500m.
Operating it would not be easy as any Penzance to Paddington trains using it would have to reverse at Plymouth and Exeter St Davids. In Southern days it was used as a diversionary route by Western trains but the main service to use it was the Waterloo to Plymouth service for many years part of the Atlantic Coast Express.
Much of the line, closed in 1968, has been converted into a cycle path from Okehampton to Lydford. Many of the stations are still in place like this one at Brentor.
It any of the Devon based proposals get through the first stage, applicants will then be asked to pitch their proposal to a panel of experts later this month. An announcement of which proposals the Government will offer funding to will follow within two weeks.