Tavistock rail link on track for 2014 start

A RAILWAY line linking Plymouth and Tavistock is on track to be running again by 2014.

The five and a half mile line, which closed in 1962, would connect with the existing service to Bere Alston, and let Tavistock commuters get to Plymouth in just half an hour.

The line was the idea of infrastructure group Kilbride Community Rail.

Peter Ford, Kilbride Group managing director, said his company would fund the rail link through a development of about 750 houses to the west of Tavistock if that is approved in the West Devon Borough Council core strategy next Spring.

The housing scheme is part of plans to deliver 4,400 new homes across West Devon by 2026.

The plan, the borough council's core strategy, was given a boost when councillors voted to press ahead with work on the document that went out to public consultation earlier this year.

The railway line was a victim of the Beeching 'axe' of the 1960s.

"It's a long process. We are hoping that the construction programme will start in 2013," Mr Frost said.

"The actual construction work will only take about nine months, depending on what time of year we start.

"Before that we have to get through the legal process to reinstate the line."

Kilbride has done numerous transport schemes around the country, specialising in rail freight until recently.

"We got involved because of our interest in re-establishing the rail link," Mr Frost said.

"We need the residential development to fund the line, but we'll probably bring in one or more specialist residential builders."

He said the railway would cost "between £10 million and £20million" , but refused to be more specific because negotiations with contractors had reached the detailed stage.

Chris Dunford, West Devon's planning policy manager, said Kilbride would also build a new railway station serving the development on the west side of Tavistock.

The 21.5 hectare site is southwest of Tavistock about a mile from the town centre. It will also include a station car park and a neighbourhood centre providing local shops, a primary school and a hospital.

Kirstie Clish-Green, who was elected as Liberal Democrat borough councillor for Tavistock South in a recent by-election, said she had voted against the core strategy at Tuesday's meeting of the full council.

"It involves building a lot of houses in Crowndale Valley, behind Tavistock College.

"It got through after all the Conservatives voted for it, but I stuck to my guns.

"During my election campaign, everyone on the doorstep said they didn't want it to happen."

Miss Clish-Green said the new development would be on the birthplace of Plymouth's most famous citizen, Sir Francis Drake.

The Elizabethan sailor and entrepreneur was born at Crowndale Farm, near Tavistock, in about 1543.

Mr Dunford insisted that the new scheme would not affect Crowndale Farm.


Source: thisisplymouth.co.uk