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Teignmouth rail plan rethink

Public sinks idea to move track closer to sea

Plans to improve resilience along a 1.8km stretch of railway line near Teignmouth won't be going ahead any time soon.

Network Rail's put a halt on proceedings whilst it considers the considerable feedback it received to a public consultation, to which more than 1,600 people contributed. The concept of moving the line out to sea didn't go down well with a lot of local people.

The affected track is between Parson’s Tunnel and Teignmouth in Devon, which is bordered by steep cliffs on one side and the sea on the other.

Network Rail had proposed to move the track out towards the beach in places, to allow space to stabilise cliffs. A new coastal footpath would be built, along with a new landward path and footbridge across the line.

Key findings from the consultation were:

  • 73 per cent of people agreed/strongly agreed that this stretch of railway needs to be more resilient, with 13 per cent disagreeing/strongly disagreeing and 14 per cent undecided.
  • 41 per cent of people agree/strongly agree with Network’s Rails proposals for improved resilience, with 51 per cent disagreeing/strongly disagreeing and eight per cent undecided.
  • More than half (54 per cent) of people supported or strongly supported the creation of a new coastal path and amenity


In a statement, Network Rail said it now plans to refine the proposals after analysing the 1,605 responses from the second round. The consultation asked people to provide further comments on the plans and/or give feedback on how they could be improved.

Mike Gallop, Network Rail’s director for the western route, said: “We received some good and considered feedback which can positively influence our plans, and it is important that we get this significant scheme right. As a result of the feedback we are now refining the plans even further with a view to then sharing these revisions with the public next year. We’ll now spend the next few months working through this detail, once we have our refined plans we will schedule a further round of public consultation in 2021.

“This means that we won’t be applying for a Transport and Works Act order to seek consent for the scheme this year as we had previously indicated in early communications. We will only proceed to this stage when we’ve done this further work and engagement.”

A summary of the consultation outcomes, along with the comments submitted, can be viewed online at networkrail.co.uk/Teignmouth.

Network Rail will also be writing to 16,000 households within the consultation boundary, with a summary of the findings

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