Network Rail to reopen inland route to Plymouth

Last week I wrote about the possibility of reopening the old inland railway line from Exeter to Plymouth as an alternative to the vulnerable stretch along the seawall at Dawlish.

Now BBC News is reporting that this line has indeed been chosen by Network Rail as "an additional alternative railway route". It goes on to say:

There is no timescale for the plan, which Network Rail concluded in outline proposals last year would cost hundreds of millions of pounds.

It seems this old L&SWR route via Okehampton and Tavistock has been chosen in preference to

the Teign Valley route, via Christow and Heathfield - and the so-called Dawlish Avoiding Line, which was promoted in the 1930s but was never built. 

The route would have passed inland behind Teignmouth and Dawlish rather than along the coast like the current line.

Adrian Sanders will be pleased to read that

Network Rail said abandoning the Dawlish route was "not an option".