Return to Tavistock
After the Exeter to Okehampton route rejoined the passenger network at the end of last year, attention is turning to reconnecting Tavistock with Plymouth as a stepping stone to full reopening of the former LSWR inland route around the top of Dartmoor, as
THE restoration of rail services between Plymouth and Tavistock (which last ran in May 1968, see panel) is currently the subject of Restoring Your Railway Ideas Funding, with a view to building a solid business case. It is hoped this will then attract further finance from the Department for Transport, local authorities, and the possible bonus of a Town & Country Planning Act 1990 ‘Section 106’ subvention. This clause requires housing development promoters to help enhance local infrastructure, which could run into multi-millions of pounds.
The locally-focused team responsible for achieving the Exeter-Okehampton reopening on time and within budget is now applying its expertise to the Tavistock opportunity.
Great Western’s head of service development Matthew Barnes and Network Rail’s South
West senior strategic planner David Northey outlined the way in which Devon County Council’s aspirations had matured into a fullblown investment scheme beyond the capacity of one local authority.
Then came the Okehampton success story. Local knowledge secured solutions to many potential setbacks, but the result has been passenger numbers that continue to encourage the team. The mid-day leisure trains have loaded well throughout, but commuter trains were initially less well patronised, as employment patterns take longer to adapt. However, the student 12,000 population of Exeter College seems to have discovered the new train service and there were around 100 passengers on the first inbound service when it was observed recently.
Thriving community
Tavistock has historically been more prosperous than Okehampton, with the former’s mining being more remunerative than the latter’s quarrying. The influence of the Bedford family has also ensured that Tavistock town centre flourished in comparison. Funders of new railway projects relish both these scenarios. Thriving communities have more disposable income and propensity to travel. Poor districts need to travel for education and employment, attracting other sources of funding, lately characterised as ‘levelling up’. The Okehampton former main, now branch, line has to compete with a fast dual carriageway leading to the outskirts of Exeter, but the approach to the city centre is severely congested and parking charges are high –- a farsighted policy to discourage commuter parking for at least the last 40 years. From Tavistock, journeys into Plymouth are unreliable, often slow all the way, and always so in from Roborough (about five miles north of the city centre). A typical off-peak car journey takes around 45 minutes and a bus journey in the peak, even with priority schemes, takes about an hour. Tavistock is around six miles north of Bere Alston, and Matthew Barnes foresees an hourly service to Plymouth (around 17 miles in all) taking 25-30min. Current signalling involves a ‘one-train working’ train staff north of St Budeaux Victoria Road for the two-hourly service frequency between Plymouth and Gunnislake, with ground frame operation at Bere Alston where trains reverse direction. David Northey believes Network Rail could work the train service as at present to St Budeaux Victoria Road, with unworked distant signals protecting colour light stop signals at Bere Alston (controlled at least initially at Plymouth) from the Gunnislake, Tavistock and St Budeaux directions. Pro-rail Cornwall County Council, which administers the right bank of the Tamar and hence has an interest in the train service to Calstock and Gunnislake, was initially presented with the prospect of a unit locked in to shuttling between Gunnislake and an enhanced layout at Bere Alston, where passengers would connect with Tavistock trains. It became clear, however, that there was a strong preference for retaining through trains to Plymouth – even if this meant one every two hours, instead of every hour with a change of trains. Matthew Barnes devised an elegant solution to meet this objective. The Tavistock train would run hourly, then on alternate hours, as it leaves Bere Alston, the Plymouth-Gunnislake train would depart St Budeaux Victoria Road and reverse at Bere Alston. While this proceeded to Gunnislake, the Tavistock train would return and clear St Budeaux, crossing the next Tavistock train. As this one left Bere Alston for Tavistock, the Gunnislake-Plymouth train would emerge from Cornwall and set off for Victoria Road. This plan would mean Devonport and the disadvantaged western suburbs of Plymouth would be better served by public transport. It does entail a degree of performance risk, Matthew Barnes volunteers, but there have been far worse examples. Station dwell times at Victoria Road would be shorter, without having to handle the ‘onetrain-working staff’, and reversals at Bere Alston would be quicker without having to operate the ground frame. Ernesettle Ministry of Defence sidings, on the branch just north of St Budeaux and still occasionally used for munitions traffic, would be reached by an “Annett’s Key” ground frame release. A resultant 45-minute turnround at Plymouth might be seen as wasteful, but – subject to pathing constraints – this is long enough to run through to Ivybridge and return in time for the next Tavistock departure. Projecting this further, a new station at Plympton (between Plymouth and Ivybridge) would further reduce road congestion and enhance the city’s green credentials.
One downside is that only a single line is proposed between Bere Alston and Tavistock. This keeps the reopening costs low, but would damage the potential of extending the project to bridge the 16½ mile gap between Okehampton and Tavistock to reinstate a full Exeter-Plymouth service that would also act as a Dawlish sea wall diversionary route.
Matthew Barnes is confident the Tavistock plan will not damage this strategic ambition. He foresees a reinstated Tavistock-Okehampton line as single with dynamic passing loops.
Two trains an hour each way could be accommodated this way, with room available for the loops on the straight section on the edge of Dartmoor. Bere Alston-Tavistock, on the other hand, is hemmed in by deep cuttings and steep embankments.
To squeeze, say, a 55mph top speed between Bere Alston and Tavistock might require an alignment that uses all the former double line trackbed. Top speeds, even downhill, were not much higher in steam days on this stretch and, in any case, different parameters apply to a modern reconstruction. However, an envisaged nine-minute Bere Alston-Tavistock time is unlikely to be the key capacity constraint. St Budeaux Victoria Road to Bere Alston might need enhancement or an altered diversionary local train plan though.
Reinstating the full diversionary route process is seen as a three-stage project: ExeterOkehampton, Bere Alston-Tavistock, and then examination of Okehampton-Tavistock. There is no active development work being done on this final link by rail companies, although pressure groups and independent consultants have kept the spotlight on the available options by publishing reports.
Gold plating
Some of the proposals have included an element of gold-plating. For instance, using double track, 25kV overhead electric wiring, through trains from Waterloo, and a north-towest curve at Cowley Bridge Junction (Exeter) so freight and diverted trains could avoid having to reverse at the Exeter end.
It is not necessary to be cynical (although perhaps it helps) to foresee news reports stating: “Both rail routes to the West blocked. Storm Zebedee breaches the Dawlish sea wall and brings down the wires at Prewley Summit.” Unless and until there is electrification from Worting Junction (west of Basingstoke) through Salisbury to Exeter, overhead electrification would require tri-mode stock, while operating a local service on the end of a 172-mile main line run is unlikely to be reliable.
As for building the new curve, what freight traffic would this encourage? The gradients on the diversion at 1-in-73 are less severe than the Great Western route’s typical 1-in-42, but it would still be a negative influence on payloads.
Exeter to Paddington is also the key revenue flow on West of England passenger trains, so there is little incentive to avoid the cathedral city and county headquarters. It has also been suggested that the ‘Night Riviera’ sleeper, diverted via Tavistock, could use the new curve. But Matthew Barnes suggests it would still make more sense, in both business and operational terms, to run it into Exeter and then use the former Southern route to Yeovil Junction before regaining the Western at Castle Cary.
It is clear there is a tailwind behind the Tavistock project following the apparent success of Okehampton, both in project management and revenue yield. Nevertheless, reopening is still a few stages in the future, and TavistockOkehampton some distance in its wake.
Matthew Barnes summarised the situation succinctly: “Okehampton was like scoring from the penalty spot, but at present Tavistock is like trying to loft the ball over the goalkeeper from the centre circle.” ■