Re: [LUG] train line to re-open April 4th

[Simon Avery <digdilem@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 7 March 2014 10:56, Brad Rogers <brad@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The problems with that are;  railtrack don't own much of the land that
dismantled permanent way occupied.  They'd have to buy it back, at
considerable cost.  Then there would inevitably be multiple objections
to any plans to route rail through Dartmoor, or anywhere else for that
matter.  Neither are insurmountable, but would preclude anything being
'quick'.

 

Agree, and it would need high level political will. Purchase orders are unpopular amongst voters (I don't think I'd vote for a government that forced me to sell land to them, taking away something I have worked hard for, value highly and may have made quite pretty).

I know two of the suggested routes. The Longdown, Teign Valley route is at the end of my road. Unfortunately the A38 occupies the old trackbed by Chudleigh Knighton and various individuals own the entire remaining route. It would mean a lot of people involved to attempt to negotiate purchase, fail, then rely on mandatory purchases and a lot of unhappy landowners.

The same would be true of the Meldon-Tavistock route currently favoured, and of course, half of that route is currently a rather fine cyclepath (that I rode two weeks ago). Reverting that to rail use would be unpopular amongst it's current wheeled users as well.

Nothing is technically impossible, it's just whether the political will is strong enough and the pockets deep.

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