Save Our Railway - campaigning to complete the resilience works at Dawlish

 A petition launched by Modern Railways Deputy Editor and rail campaigner Andy Bowes-Roden to get the Government to reinstate Phase 5 cliff works of the South West Rail Resilience Programme between Dawlish and Teignmouth has secured almost 350 signatures in just four days. The Government announced it was pausing strengthening the cliffs near Teignmouth, Devon, in July with funding to be spent elsewhere, but Mr Bowes-Roden – who led the successful campaign to save the ‘Night Riviera’ sleeper train from closure in 2005 - says the works must be completed. “These cliffs were identified as by far the biggest geotechnical risk to the railway by Network Rail in 2014 after 20,000 tonnes of rock fell onto the railway, closing it for two months - and they remain so. Until these vital works are completed, those cliffs are a sandstone Sword of Damocles hanging over our beautiful but fragile railway. Should they fall again, a huge area of the country will lose its only rail link for weeks ...

The petition to get the Government to reverse its pause of the Phase 5 cliff works of the South West Rail Resilience Programme is now live - and you can sign it at  https://www.change.org/SaveOurRailway  We need as many people as possible to sign it and share it. Having lived and worked in Cornwall for 20 years, I have seen first-hand the impact of disruptions to our vital railway connections. In 2014, a major rockfall and the breach of the sea wall near Dawlish forced the closure of the railway. For two months, our region suffered tremendously, with the South West economy losing approximately £20 million per day—or £27 million when adjusted for inflation. The South West Rail Resilience Programme is essential to preventing similar catastrophes in the future. The route is the only railway connecting South Devon, Torbay, Plymouth, and all of Cornwall to the national rail network, and it plays an immeasurable role in our region’s economy and daily life. This railway is not merely...