A NEW later train to the south west of England will leave London Paddington from tonight, in a bid to compensate for the continuing break in the main line at Dawlish. Meanwhile a Plymouth MP has called for a conference to examine ways of improving the resilience of railways in the south west.
Network Rail is now predicting that repairs to the storm-damaged section at Dawlish may not be completed until mid-April, so First Great Western has introduced a 21.35 Paddington departure from tonight which will call at Reading, Taunton and Tiverton Parkway, reaching Exeter at 23.51. A special coach from Tiverton Parkway will take passengers onward to Plymouth, Bodmin, Truro and Penzance. Another coach will provide a road link from Exeter St David's to Newton Abbot.
FGW has already said that the suspended Night Riviera sleeper service will return when the Dawlish section can reopen, but hopes that its new evening departure from London will be some compensation until then.
FGW general manager west David Crome said: "The sleeper will be back once Network Rail completes the work at Dawlish and until then we will do everything we can to minimise disruption."
Labour MP Alison Seabeck, who represents the Plymouth Moor View constituency, has called for an urgent high level conference to examine ways of improving the south west's rail links. She has been critical of the lack of network resilience demonstrated by bad weather since the turn of the year, pointing out that: "This is the main London to Penzance line we are talking about, not some minor branch line from a Thomas the Tank engine period."
She continued: “We were promised over £30 million of funding last year to simply do some resilience work at Exeter, not stop the flooding impacts entirely but mitigate it and get rail open more quickly. But now they and government Ministers have gone silent on whether this will actually be provided.
"In the last letter to Plymouth City Council no mention was made of emergency funding for rail support at all. I really feel for those whose homes and businesses have been directly affected by the extreme weather. Plymouth Waterfront has been severely hit, with many pubs and restaurants being devastatingly damaged.
“Last time the rail line was cut off at Exeter due to severe weather and flooding it was estimated that it cost the South West economy in the region of £170 million."
However she welcomed the news of the extra train, saying: "I am delighted First Great Western have listened to concerns raised from people in Plymouth. Putting on this additional train shows Plymouth is open for business and FGW deserve credit for acting to support the city."