Prime Minister reassures MP on Sea Wall resilience programme
Delivering resilience improvements for the Devon Sea Wall is “a national priority”, says Prime Minister Theresa May.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on January 30, Luke Pollard (Labour, Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) said: “Next week marks five years since the train line at Dawlish was washed away in storms. Five years on, that train line remains fragile. We need money, not more press releases.”
Pollard asked May to unblock a £300 million upgrade that he claimed the Department for Transport was sitting on, and use the anniversary of the wall’s collapse ( RAIL 742) to keep the line open and stop it being “fragile and precarious”.
May responded: “Obviously, passengers expect better. I understand from the Department for Transport that the first phase of work to protect the Sea Wall at Dawlish began in November, with essential repairs to the breakwaters. That is part of the £15m wider investment to make the railway at Dawlish and Teignmouth more resilient to extreme weather.”
Pollard has also been vocal in trying to secure additional rolling stock for CrossCountry. Voyagers currently cannot head west of Exeter during bad weather because the sea water affects the electrics fitted to the train’s roof.