WITH all the storms and flooding, surely it's time to get behind the Okehampton railway connection to Exeter.

Many people drive to Exeter to work or catch trains up country — it's quicker than driving to Plymouth and training round the south coast — and that's on a good day when there are no coaches round Teignmouth and Dawlish.

A train connection at Okehampton would be so much more useful than the Tavistock link — the line is already there and working, plenty of parking and a spot of shopping in Waitrose — what's not to like?                      

Much better than an expensive new link in Tavistock, which only comes with the extra tag of 750 new houses!

Pen Twine

Whitchurch

IT now seems that the favoured alternative to the beleaguered coastal rail line might be to re-open the route to Plymouth via Okehampton and Tavistock.

While a logical and sensible choice one can only wonder what impact this will have on both Okehampton and Tavistock, not to mention villages such as Lydford, Bridestowe and Bere Alston.

Given that such proposals and their funding are administered from 'on high' do our ongoing 'homes for rail link' wranglings get put on the back burner? Do we get the homes anyhow?

As I understood it, their location on the single site to the west of Tavistock was chosen mainly to meet the needs of the developer undertaking the railway restoration.

If that scheme (which will doubtless now be on a larger scale than the rural branch line originally envisaged) is to be funded from the national coffers, can we not look again at where best to locate the required housing stock?

Indeed the whole scheme should perhaps be halted until coherent proposals for any new line are put forward as the location of a new railway station for Tavistock will be another issue.

One unexpected side benefit will be that staff at the council offices on Kilworthy Hill will be regularly reminded of their commitment to improving transport infrastructure in the region.

Guy Sergeant

Whitchurch Road

Tavistock

AFTER the recent storm damage at Dawlish, the time has now come to make some serious decisions as to an alternative rail route into the West Country.

It is obvious that the damage at Dawlish must be corrected as son as possible. then the future route agreed and work put in hand soonest.

The only viable route must be Exeter, Okehampton, Tavistock, Plymouth. The line is still extant to Meldon and to Bere Alston. The route of the original trackbed is still available for the connecting section albeit for a few dwellings and the West Devon council office building.It should not be too much of a problem to deal with these.

Although this original line was double track I think it would suffice to start with, to have a single track with passing loops. This alternative route would open a lot more of Devon up to use by rail travel and ease the road congestion between Tavistock and Plymouth and Okehampton and Exeter.

Let us now get our sensible heads on and go for this important rail link without all the petty infighting there has been with the Bere Alston/Tavistock rail extension.

Without this proposed rail link the whole of the Westcountry will become much more of a 'withered arm'.

The Dawlish route will still be able to be used for commuter trains and the route to Paignton.

Come on Devon, wake up and support this project.

S McQueen

Broad Park Road

Bere Alston

THE serious devastation of the main line railway track at Dawlish ought to be a wake-up call.

Business, commerce and tourism are at stake in this severing of the link to West Devon and all of Cornwall.

While I concur with Chris Dicker's thoughts (Times) about the limitations of a restored Tavistock to Bere Alston rail link (if it ever gets done), restoration of the whole line would be a different matter, which the current bad weather highlights.

The Government ought to get the missing section of track — Okehampton to Bere Alston — that was removed from the LSWR main line Exeter to Plymouth under Beeching — restored as quickly as possible.

This ought not to be too difficult as the track still exists and is in use from Exeter to Okehampton and Plymouth to Bere Alston. In between most of the track bed is still in place.

Restoring this link would not only provide an alternative rail service to West Devon and Cornwall when the other line is down, but would also have the advantage of linking Okehampton and Tavistock with main line services again.

Perhaps now is the time for the West Country business community to press the Government to get this done as quickly as possible, as climate change means that the Dawlish  problem might soon become more frequent.

Terence Scarborough

Uplands

Tavistock