The Petition of residents of St Ives constituency and others,
Declares that the Petitioners believe that if the Government can spend up to £50 billion on high speed rail investment to the north (HS2), the people of Cornwall should not be denied the investment necessary for a resilient rail service to Paddington.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to do what is necessary to make sure that the rail link from Penzance to Paddington is one that passengers can rely on.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Andrew George, Official Report, 1 July 2014; Vol. 583, c. 864.]
[P001362]
Observations from the Secretary of State for Transport:
After 8 weeks of repairs, the train line at Dawlish - connecting the South West to the rest of the country - was reopened in time for the Easter holidays. The line was damaged during the winter storms earlier in the year. As a result, a raft of measures were put in place to help people continue to travel, including buses to provide alternative transport, discounted fares and additional flights out of Newquay.
The impact of the extreme weather shows the importance of making our railways strong enough to weather any storm. That is why we announced a £31 million package of improvements and asked Network Rail to examine every option to ensure the resilience of this route. This is looking at both new and reopened alignments as well as an option to make the existing route more resilient. A further objective is to maintain rail connectivity to the coastal communities of Dawlish and Teignmouth. Network Rail has now produced the initial report, and the full report is due later in the autumn.
The Government will then study the full report and respond appropriately. As stated by the Prime Minister when re-opening the Dawlish rail line:
“Our focus now moves to the medium and long-term looking at what can be done ...to make the current coastal route more resilient and, by the autumn, understand what the best viable relief route might be.”