Paperwork for rail line 'will take five years'

...BUT BUILDING WORK CAN BE DONE IN JUST FIVE MONTHS

- ALISON STEPHENSON

THE railway from Tavistock to Plymouth can be built in five months but it will take five years because of the paperwork, a public meeting has heard.

Campaigners are pushing for the work, which involves laying five miles of rail track, to be speeded up so the service can begin before 2029. The government has confirmed £150 million for the project, subject to an updated business plan being approved.

Funds were announced in last year’s autumn statement, following the decision to scrap the extension of the high-speed rail HS2 from the West Midlands to Manchester and divert cash to transport improvements across the country.

Network Rail is writing a business case for Tavistock, and will submit it this summer with a decision expected in the autumn. It was standing-room only at Tavistock Town Hall for a public meeting organised by Britain Remade, a group lobbying for better infrastructure, more investment and new industry throughout the UK.

The group has chosen the rail project in Tavistock as one of its top priority campaigns.

The rail link is phase two of a bigger plan to get the whole of the northern route reinstated from Plymouth to Exeter, creating a second railway to the south west.