Dawlish

The communities and businesses of West Devon and Cornwall are celebrating today as their rail link with the rest of the country has been restored in time for the Easter holidays.

Following eight weeks of painstaking repairs to the storm-ravaged railway at Dawlish, a full service will run from Friday 4 April. However, because of continued flooding in the Somerset levels and final work...

Today officially marks the one-month anniversary of the closure of the South West’s main rail link after line at Dawlish was left in tatters by extreme storm damage on 4 February.

The closure has badly hit the South West’s economy as businesses face severe disruption to their normal activity.

The region’s tourist industry thought to have been hot particularly badly seeing...

Network Rail has said they will consider five alternative routes as a long term response to the destroyed line at Dawlish.

Options include creating a new passenger route using the existing freight train lines at Alphington and Heathfield near Newton Abbot.

Another option is to reinstate the closed Okehampton line which is expected to cost up to £700m.

Three new routes...

Work on to re-open the railway line could be completed earlier than expected, according to Network Rail.

The work to repair the area of track destroyed during the recent heavy storms was initially expected to be completed by mid-March but was pushed back to mid-April after further storm damage frustrated repairs.

However the Rail Minister, Steve Hammond, said the rail company...

Network Rail will lay more concrete foundations in Dawlish today after additional damage to the sea wall caused by Friday' nights storm could delay the track’s restoration by up to two weeks.

The track, initially damaged by storms at the beginning of February, was originally expected to be completed by mid-march.

However this Friday saw the temporary flood defences, made of...

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has confirmed that the £31.1m promised to improve the resilience of the South West’s rail network will be found.

Ten projects to improve the rail networks resilience against flooding will be funded with the money including for work in Honiton, Cowley Bridge Junction, Crewkerne and several other areas of rail vulnerable to potential flooding.

...

Network Rail has revealed its choice for an alternative railway line to the heavily damaged Dawlish line today.

The plans come as the rail authority had consider an alternative to the current coastal line after the recent storms destroyed an 80m section of track near Dawlish.

The potential route from Okehampton to Plymouth via Tavistock through areas of Dartmoor National Park...