SUPPORTERS of the reinstatement of the Plymouth to Exeter rail link via Okehampton and Tavistock said the next few weeks were crucial for the campaign, with the imminent release of a report published by the Department of Transport. The report by track managers Network Rail is expected to give details of favoured alternative routes to the vulnerable Dawlish line which collapsed in the winter and left businesses and residents cut off for several weeks. It has been suggested, following leaked details of the document, that the report will show alternatives as 'too expensive' and ministers may therefore opt for shoring up the existing line but Network Rail sources have said no 'value judgements' have been made. Chair of the Peninsular Rail Group Richard Searight, who is one of the campaign leaders for the reinstatement of the Plymouth to Exeter line via Okehampton and Tavistock, said the report was an engineering report, it was not interested in people. 'The line we are suggesting is not expensive — it is between £500-million and £700-million,' he said. 'We are concerned that while the Government is happy to spend £40-billion on the HS2 (high speed train project) for the North, the South West will be ignored. 'To restore mainline services via Okehampton would provide total rail weather resilience, rail 'enfranchise' 100,000 people and future proof the Peninsular for decades to come. In short it would have a transformational effect on the economies of north, west and central Devon and north Cornwall worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year for decades to come.' 'The message is our rail link is cheap and it is going to happen — we need to make it clear to David Cameron that if he gets this wrong it is going to stink. The next few weeks are crucial, we need to be making the headlines with this, not page ten of the gardening section.'