Big push to reinstate rail link between Tavistock and Plympton

Councils look for ways forward

Plymouth and West Devon councils, along with South West Devon MP Rebecca Smith, are pushing from all angles to get a rail link to Tavistock and Plympton after the Government failed to include it in its transport plans.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander announced on Tuesday that the Government would be greenlighting over 50 rail and road projects but the long awaited stations in the Plymouth catchment area are not on the list.

Labour leader of Plymouth City Council, Tudor Evans, is hoping to use the “defence mastercard” to influence the Government, which he says he has the ear of.

Some £4.4 billion is being invested into Devonport Dockyard over next decade bringing with it 5,500 new jobs and 2,000 construction jobs and the city wants to be ready with the infrastructure and housing.

Cllr Evans collared transport minister Lord Hendy at the recent GWR stakeholder conference and asked him for a meeting to discuss opening the Tavistock rail line and extending it out to Plympton and Ivybridge.

“It’s not as fanciful as it sounds,” he told councillors this week. “We need £2 million to do the outline business case and it’s only £50 million to do all the project which in the overall context of defence spending it is not that outrageous an ask.”

Meanwhile as a last resort if government money is not forthcoming West Devon Borough Council is set to ask Devon County Council if it can use a £2 million pot of developers cash on the business case.

The section 106 money, which is made up of contributions from developers over the last few years when they secured planning permission for homes, is destined for the installation of the rail line but the council will ask if the criteria to be tweaked to get the business case over the line.

Leader of West Devon Borough Council Mandy Ewings (Ind, Tavistock South West) said Tavistock to Plymouth should be seen as a priority as once the 2,000 new homes at Woolwell were built there would be “even more congestion” on the A386 commuter route.

South West Devon Conservative MP Rebecca Smith, who has been campaigning for a better rail network in the region since she was elected last year, said: “I am really disappointed that the TavyRail scheme has received a red light. We have heard quite a lot about the investment in Devon and Somerset.

“The Government is delivering a huge amount of investment in Plymouth, which is welcome, but without a rail link between Tavistock and Plymouth that can continue further into my constituency at Ivybridge, I struggle to see how the investment in defence and housing will be fulfilled.

“Given that the secretary of state is committing at least £725 billion for infrastructure over the next decade, I would be interested to know why she could not find £1.5 million to fund the business case for TavyRail.”

The transport secretary said the Government was keeping a number of schemes under review and would set out a pipeline of future infrastructure projects that it believed were worthy but which had not been funded in the spending review.