Call for Government to create a minister for rail resilience for the South West
Council leaders across the region are calling for the Government to create a minister for rail resilience for the South West to ensure an immediate and effective response to the collapse of the sea wall at Dawlish.
Plymouth City Council leader Tudor Evans said: “We need to have a minister at a senior level who will do everything in their power to ensure all he agencies work together to prevent this from becoming an economic catastrophe.”
The leaders of Cornwall, Torbay, Plymouth, Devon and Somerset have agreed Councillor Evans proposal to ask the South West MPs meeting the transport minister tonight to convey this request.
The leaders are calling for immediate action as follows:
- The appointment of a single senior minister for rail resilience in the South West to take control of this situation, ensuring a rapid response and coordination of various agencies
- More coaches to speed journey times for passengers and dedicated and direct services to and from Taunton – where the Paddington trains currently finish – to and from Plymouth, Exeter, Newton Abbot/Torbay and Penzance.
- More through trains from London to Taunton and from the north and the Midlands to reach the South West more swiftly.
- Immediate funding to be allocated to support long term improvements to not only the Dawlish seawall, but to improve resilience of the line between Exeter and Plymouth so that we have a 21st Century not a like-for-like Victorian solution
- Immediate release of £31.3 million investment programme to support the 10 point programme submitted by Network Rail to help the rail system withstand more frequent flooding
- An immediate emergency timetable published to make clear which trains are running where and when as part of swift and concerted public information campaign to highlight alternatives for customers
- Urgent clarification of how long engineering work at Whiteball Tunnel will now take
- Customers who have rail tickets to be allowed on local bus network
- For the duration of the works, suspension of all fair restrictions until work is finished
Cllr Evans said: “Our rail way line is now a Peruvian rope bridge – we need the full attention of government and an immediate response to this. The entire region’s economy depends on it.”
Other asks include:
- A fully funded investment scheme to ensure there is resilience in the South West Rail network
- Co-ordinated capital investment from both Network Rail and the Environment Agency to work more closely together.
- Connect Plymouth to the Strategic National Corridor network. It sends a clear message from Government to the private sector that they expect business growth and is vital for business confidence. It costs the Government nothing, but will have a huge benefit for the city.
