Tuesday 16 June 2009

ATOC tramples roughshod over heritage line

Oh dear.

ATOC's exciting Connecting Communities Report already appears to be falling apart under public scrutiny.

Readers will recollect that the report was widely leaked over the weekend before being officially unveiled on Monday to much media fanfare and misty eyed recollections of pre-Beeching days.


But it would appear that much of its thinking is back of the fag packet stuff, judging by this story in the Herald Express...

THE steam railway company which runs Churston Station says it has not been consulted over new plans to reconnect the line with the mainline route to Newton Abbot.

Andrew Pooley, general manager of Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway, says the company has not been involved in compiling the report, which singles out the old Brixham line as one of 14 which should be reopened nationwide.

And he says the idea 'has not been thought through'.

Indeed.

Perhaps surprising that ATOC didn't bother consulting with the heritage line before publishing a report that proposes using its infrastructure for new services.

Doubly so, as the report was written by the former chairman of another heritage railway in the South West.

Is the Eye alone in fearing that ATOC is now more interested in spin than substance?