Eighty metres of track have been left hanging, the adjacent road cut and several houses undermined.  Dawlish station and platforms, and track nearby, have also been damaged.  Initial estimates suggest that it will take at least six weeks to repair the sea wall and track, and re-open the line.

This has had the effect of cutting off Cornwall and half of Devon from the rest of the UK railway network.  Buses are carrying passengers between Exeter and Plymouth.  Trains are running between Plymouth and Penzance, and will shortly be resumed between Newton Abbot and Paignton.

In a hurriedly-prepared briefing issued the same day, Network Rail said that it is currently mobilising a specialist project team to design and implement the rebuilding operation.  During Control Period 5 (2014-19), it plans to develop a strategy and designs to enable an “asset system” approach to improved sea wall resilience  against marine erosion. Implementation of works to deliver this strategy is currently planned for Control Period 6 (2019-24).

Network Rail is working closely with Devon County Council in support of the re-opening of the line to Tavistock from Bere Alston. However, it says it has no plans to promote the re-opening of the former Exeter – Okehampton – Tavistock – Plymouth line between Tavistock and Okehampton to provide a diversionary route to the coastal line at Dawlish, because third parties own much of the alignment, on which houses have been built in several places, and because major structures such as Meldon viaduct would require complete rebuilding.

In addition, various third parties have assessed the feasibility of a new alignment between Exeter and Newton Abbot. The first of these was the Great Western Railway, which in 1935-39 planned a cutoff between Newton Abbot and Dawlish Warren (later extended to Exminster) via Haldon.  Network Rail suggests that both the new alignment proposal and the reopening of the Okehampton to Tavistock line would be major projects each involving +£150/£200m of investment.

Railfuture campaigns for increased network resilience by the provision of additional routes, not just resilience from asset management or white space in the schedule. 

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