It's time the South West had a proper railway

On November 29, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a rail improvement plan costing in excess of £1bn. Nevertheless, this is not "new" money provided by the Treasury. Instead, Network Rail is being permitted to borrow more money. I thought that the Government's strategy was to reduce the amount of borrowing.

The improvements include two major railway projects, namely the electrification of the North Trans-Pennine route at a cost of £290m. In addition, £270m is to be spent reinstating the former railway line between Oxford and Bedford. Campaigners had hoped that this would be extended to Cambridge, but at this stage, that extension has not been approved.

Insofar as the West of England/Wales is concerned, the route between London and Bristol will be electrified by 2016 and to Cardiff by the following year.

Although we will have to wait until January before a formal announcement is made, it would appear that the Government is still determined to proceed with HS2, namely the new rail route between London and Birmingham and beyond, which is likely to cost in excess of £32bn.

However, as usual, the South West is wholly ignored. It is astonishing that after the Beeching cuts in the early 1960s, some 50 years ago, a number of towns in the South West remain completely unconnected to the railway network. There are still no trains to Ilfracombe, Bideford, Okehampton, Torrington, Tavistock, Bude, Wadebridge or Padstow. Indeed, one does get the impression that the civil servants in the Department for Transport believe that Land's End is just a few miles west of Exeter. Perhaps that explains why the M5 stops at Exeter and that when the A361 to Barnstaple was built in the late 1980s, it was neither dualled, nor was there any provision made for a dual carriageway at a later date.

It would appear that civil servants are also unaware that passenger usage of branch lines in the Westcountry has increased enormously over the last 10 years. There is a considerable demand for rail travel, not least because of the price of petrol. It is time the Government provided the South West with a proper rail network and ensured those major towns not connected to the network have rail services restored as soon as possible.