The rail crisis threatening to ruin your holiday to Cornwall
Many make their journeys by railway – but now these trips could be in jeopardy because of a controversial new government policy.
Residents of Devon and Cornwall, as well as holidaymakers, fear they could be cut off from the UK rail network after the Government halted work aimed at preventing landslides along the main line to London.
The Department for Transport said last month that plans to shore up crumbling cliffs between Exeter and Plymouth had been shelved, and that they would now simply be 'monitored'.
Since then, heavy rain has saturated the area, leading to a spate of landslips a few miles to the north and fuelling concern that the vital rail connection could be hit next.
Martin Wrigley, the Liberal Democrat MP for Newton Abbott, said that following the suspension of emergency work, it may now be a case of when, not if, sections of towering sandstone cliff fall onto the line.
'We're in a situation where the entire cliff may come down at any time on any day and there may or may not be a train passing at the time,' said Mr Wrigley.
'It would be absolutely catastrophic for the region if those cliffs let go and fatal if they let go at the wrong moment and there's a train there.
'You look just along the coast from here, at Sidmouth, those cliffs just come down and bang, it's gone. And we have a similar geology.'
Exmouth Coastguard Station warned people to stay away from areas prone to cliff falls earlier this month after a 'significant collapse' near Sidmouth, Devon.
It comes 11 years after a storm washed out the seawall at Dawlish, Devon, making headlines around the world as 80m of track were left dangling over the sea, while triggering a landslip in nearby Holcombe that sent 25,000 tonnes of rock cascading onto the line.
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