Dawlish - wither the GW mainline?

Gosh, just gosh!



A question to all the clever engineers and climate scientists out there.

Is maintaining this route sustainable?

Or at least acceptable to the voters and business people of Devon and Cornwall, without the provision of an alternative reliable rail route to the rest of the country?

Meanwhile eyes are turning once again to the Withered Arm...

Twitter fans may wish to look at #reopentheLSW

UPDATE: This from a Western Man...

I can assure you we have no interest in visiting the rest of Britain.

And we are delighted that we now have our own, self contained, CornishRail.



We look forward to raising a glass from Kernow to you all on St Piran's day.

CSR and new trains (or lack there of)

This from the DfT Transport Spending Review Press Notice...

The Government is currently considering revised proposals from Agility trains for the Intercity Express Programme. An announcement will be made in due course.

Because aspects of Thameslink and HLOS rolling stock programmes, as well as projects to electrify the Great Western Mainline, and the rail routes around Manchester and Liverpool, are interdependent with the IEP decision, a full announcement on all these programmes will be made at the same time.

Interesting.

This is the only mention of Thameslink in this document.

Meanwhile HM Treasury's Spending Review document makes no mention of Thameslink at all.

And whilst in DfT's Press Notice there is a vague reference to a project to 'electrify the Great Western Main Line' the Spending Review document refers only to 'supporting investment to improve journey reliability on Great Western Main Line services to Wales'.

So with both Thameslink and the electrification of the GWML in question new rolling stock on either route must seriously be in doubt.

Eye suspects that there are some very worried people in Derby and Tokyo tonight.

UPDATE: This from Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road...

This sounds as though DfT Rail's very own Mr Sisyphus has been awoken and told it's time to start pushing the Rolling Stock Plan back up the hill.