With today's brief update, we thought we'd do a thread on the rationale for reinstating the #NorthernRoute from Exeter to Plymouth via Okehampton and Tavistock, the challenges involved, and where we're to on the TORS project. Ready for a long thread? Here goes...

#Dawlish in 2014 prompted extensive calls for the railway's reinstatement (it was closed as a through route between Bere Alston and Meldon in 1968) to act as a diversionary route when the coastal main line is shut by bad weather or maintenance...

...keeping all of Cornwall and much of Devon connected to the National Rail network, as well as opening a huge area of the region to sustainable public transport again. @networkrailwest studied it in 2014 and concluded that spending money on strengthening the main line...

...was a greater priority for investment. To demolish a potential misunderstanding - we're not advocating TORS (Tavistock Okehampton Reopening Scheme) as an alternative to those critical resilience works, but as an addition to the SW transport network in its own right.

@AndyRoden1 and @CNNCT_consult met pre-lockdown to discuss whether the reopening might be more viable than thought, and brought in friends from across the rail industry to examine the case. TORS and the wider NRWG are formed of people with railway expertise in operations,

engineering and management at the very highest levels of the rail industry. Put bluntly, if they can't make a case, there isn't one. At the start, we set a host of strict criteria which had to be met. In rough order, these are: 1) The railway must cover its day-to-day operating

costs. 2) As far as possible, additional vehicles and traincrew should be limited to the least possible. 3) The existing Gunnislake and Barnstaple services must be retained. 4) The impact on @dartmoornpa and Tamar Valley AONB must be as low as possible.

5) The Granite Way trail must be retained and if possible extended.

Note that diversionary benefits are not in these criteria: if a commercial and operating case can be made, those are in addition to the economic, social and environmental benefits of the reopening.

With the sponsorship of @Geoffrey_Cox and the support of @scottmann4NC, @JohnnyMercerUK and @MelJStride, a bid was made to the DfT's reopening your railway fund. It wasn't successful, in part because the work had already gone beyond the 'early stages' point DfT envisaged.

So, how do we fulfil those criteria? The fundamental point is that to attract passengers and make operational sense, we have to provide a service fast enough from Tavistock to Plymouth and Okehampton to Exeter to get people out of their cars, and throughout comparable

with the main line. Thankfully, @networkrailwest's 2014 study suggests this is achievable. We're double checking our concept timetable against a horizontal alignment to see if we're on the right track. Assuming we are, we're confident that the railway will cover its operating

costs, require no additional rolling stock and few extra traincrew. This is critical as if we fail this test, as taxpayers, we might well be better spending our own money elsewhere. We're confident that on a day to day basis, this route stands up in its own right.

We can also accommodate the full Gunnislake and Barnstaple services, which are vital for the areas they serve. So, so far so good. What about the impact on @dartmoornpa and Tamar Valley AONB? Again, we're confident that the proposals we hope to make public soon

will demonstrate that the adverse effects inevitable with any infrastructure work have been mitigated as much as possible. And the same is true for the Granite Way, which potentially could be extended during construction of the railway from its southern limit at Lydford to

Tavistock. It is crucial, too that those most adversely affected by the reopening are treated decently, kindly and with proper consideration. Unanimous support cannot be taken for granted, and those who oppose must be given a fair hearing.

As things stand, we're confident (a phrase we repeatedly use because we're not going to be hoist on the petard of absolute certainty) that the #NorthernRoute will be a fast and attractive railway that covers its costs. But we can go further than that.

There are much wider benefits for the South West. Diversionary first, obviously. @networkrailwest resilience work should make the need for weather-related closures much less, but the route still needs maintaining, and resilience works

could potentially be speeded by opening up the possibility of longer blockades with #NorthernRoute open and running. Vitally, Cornwall, Plymouth and South Devon remain connected to the network regardless. Secondly comes freight. In our evidence to @transportgovuk

we were able to highlight how the perceived vulnerability of the main line acts as a deterrent to potential rail freight users in the SW. #NorthernRoute would eliminate that, and just as importantly offer a much easier-graded route for freight west of Exeter,

cutting the need to split trains at Newton Abbot. Supermarket trains to the far SW would be an obvious candidate to use it, but there is significant potential elsewhere, particularly if a battery factory were built in Cornwall to use lithium extracted there.

There will be benefits for @dartmoornpa - firstly by offering a cleaner (and if electrified zero emission at source) route into the park. Combined with bus links from Tavistock and Okehampton, visitors would be able to leave their car at home and access much of the park.

On the subject of buses, if our journey time aspirations are correct, there is the potential to operate express bus services from Okehampton to places such as Torrington, Bude via Launceston, Wadebridge and Padstow, providing radically improved links to those towns.

There is also huge potential for charter trains. We've seen the success of 'The Jacobite' in Scotland. How compelling would a tour running along the coastal main line and then through Dartmoor be? What a wonderful advertisement for the SW rail network that would be!

Assuming our final check on speeds confirms our thinking (and we suspect there'll be one or two red faces if it doesn't given the expertise at play here!), after liaising with @PensTransport and @networkrailwest we will make our proposal in public and in detail.

The South West - Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset - all stand to gain from this reopening. The term 'game changer' is used far too much, but in this case, if the full TORS project happens, public transport across the region will be radically improved.