The Government's announcement of a £80m boost for the Dawlish rail line has been scorned by Plymouth City Council's leader who said it was like a long delayed train - "years too late", "only takes us part of the way" and "when it finally turns up you feel relieved but also pretty furious at the inconvenience it has caused."

Four years after former Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the Okehampton rail line route was the 'most resilient' alternative to vulnerable Dawlish line in Devon, the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling claimed the cash injection would see the Dawlish seawall raised by more than 8ft.

It is in response to the storms which five years ago lashed the Devon coast, ripping apart the Victorian-era rail-line and cliff walls of Dawlish. The investment in Dawlish is part of a £5.7billion Government spending plan to modernise the Great Western Railway - although much of the funding is going on electrification of the line between London, Bristol and South Wales.

In 2015 David Cameron told the media that alternatives such as the Okehampton line was "worth a long, hard look", but he warned: "but we've obviously got to look at resilience, we've got to look at value for money, we've got to look at what is practical."

Artist impression of what the new Dawlish sea wall could look like
Artist impression of what the new Dawlish sea wall could look like

Tudor Evans, Labour leader of Plymouth City Council said: "Chris Grayling's announcement, or rather re-announcement, is a bit like when you have waited for a long delayed train – when it finally turns up you feel relieved but also pretty furious at the inconvenience it has caused.

"This announcement is not only years too late, it only takes us part of the way. It is literally a drop in the ocean – it raises the sea wall at Dawlish but doesn’t solve the resilience problem as there’s £250 million still needed for works between Dawlish and Teignmouth, including stabilisation of the cliffs.

"There’s nothing about the request I made to the rail minister to use the High Speed Trains coming out of service on other networks on the Cross Country route so they can run reliable trains through Dawlish without having to stop every time there’s a risk of water coming over the line.

"Passengers have been suffering huge disruption on that route and this is something that would make a real difference and can be done relatively quickly and easily.

"This announcement also does nothing to help towards the ambition of having faster rail journeys to the South West peninsula and the travel times enjoyed in other parts of the country.

"There is no real investment in new trains for the peninsula. They are re-announcing new trains that are not even funded by the taxpayer but what they arentt telling us is that the Government has provided 7,000 new rail carriages for every other rail network in the country.

"This is yet more evidence of Devon and Cornwall not getting our fair share of investment in rail infrastructure.

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"There's also nothing here to improve desperately needed road links to Plymouth.

"Funding for the A30 and A303 is needed and that’s all very good but we need positive action on desperately needed improvements to the A38.

"With this announcement the Government is once again trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. What it really shows is that we are still as far away from being at the top of the transport priorities list as we ever have been."

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