Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere, but Devon and Cornwall had a state-visit from David Cameron and George Osborne last week, seemingly favouring the L & SW route via Okehampton as an alternative and back-up to Dawlish.
http://www.modern-railways.com/view_article.asp?ID=8632&pubID=37&t=0&s=0&sO=both&p=1&i=10
This, of course, will be quietly dropped once the election is safely out the way but what caught my eye was the proposal to create a dedicated franchise for the South West - shades of 'Wessex Trains'. The uncritical local papers broadly welcome this, but my nasty suspicious mind suggests it is a device to hive off the loss-making services from Great Western and South West Trains rather like Northern from Transpennine. It also rather neatly solves the problem of what to do about non-electrified through services, by requiring a change at Exeter(GW) or Salisbury(SWT). It also places the onus on local-authorities to make funding decisions under the guise of 'localism'. Devon and Cornwall is about to face a massive cull to its bus-network which makes me fear for the rail-network as well. I am interested in your thoughts before I make representations to local MPs.
Since when has Salisbury to Exeter been loss making?