A LEADING railway author has hit out at the ‘betrayal’ of the South West following the report into the HS2 rail project and highlighted that restoring a route via Okehampton and Tavistock was the best solution.

Author Benedict le Vay argued that the HS2 scheme, a high speed rail network linking London, the West Midlands, Leeds and Manchester, was no help to Devon and Cornwall, yet people in the peninsula were having to pay heavily for it, instead of the improvements they need. He claimed that if the full HS2 scheme went ahead, it would cost every man, woman and child in the South West £1,500 in present and future tax without any benefit whatsoever.

After the main line at Dawlish, between Exeter and Plymouth, ws washed away by the sea in February 2014, government ministers promised the South West would have proper rail connections. The washed out tracks had been left looking like a ‘Peruvian rope bridge’ said the Plymouth council leader at the time. Both the then Prime Minister David Cameron and transport secretary Chris Grayling promised rapid action.

Mr le Vay, author of Britain from the Rails: A Window Gazer’s Guide, said: ‘Yes, the “orange army” of repair workers did an amazing job to get the line — the only connection to the South West — re-opened by that Easter, but expectations of a proper, permanent solution have not been met.’

In his view, the current strengthening of the sea wall at Dawlish would only provide respite for a while.

‘You have a railway running along the top of the beach, which was Brunel’s cheap solution when money was running out, and running under very unstable cliffs,’ he said.

‘With greater storms caused by global warming, it will be cut again, it’s just a matter of time. Does it really make sense to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on new high-tech trains with electrical equipment on the roofs and then drench them in sea water or bombard them with pebbles?

‘It’s no wonder certain vulnerable trains have been barred from the Dawlish route in certain weather and tide conditions.’

His solution is to restore the inland Exeter to Plymouth route via Okehampton and Tavistock as a diversionary route and also to offer local access and more competition.

‘It’s crazy that it was ever cut,’ he said. ‘It’s still there at both ends — like two arms of a croissant reaching towards each other but not meeting. We need this restored as double track from Waterloo to Exeter so trains can carry on to Plymouth and places such as Tavistock and Okehampton get an hourly service both ways.

‘You could use the existing trains from Waterloo and there would be no reversal needed en route.’

He added that this, and around 50 other regional infrastructure schemes that would make a real difference around Britain, could be delivered for about a quarter of the cost of the ‘comparatively pointless’ HS2.

In his book Mr le Vay urges South West residents to be more strident about demanding better services.

‘These lines would be rebuilt if they were in Scotland or Wales — and some have been,’ he said. ‘English taxpayers are helping to pay for that, so demand better treatment for the forgotten South West.’