If and one image can be said to represent the recent weather we have all suffered – to a greater or lesser extent – the image above of the line at Dawlish must be near the top of the list.
Despite being one of this country’s greatest sons, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was not without his faults. He was –and probably had to be – a showman. The Great Western’s route for is main line was criticised at the time. It could indeed be argued that the surprise should be that the line lasted for so long before the breach.
Now the damage has been done a new route has to be found. As we know, money is limited. Surely to goodness even the treasonous nincompoops masquerading as the government of this formerly sovereign country must realise that to spend sixty or eighty billion on a high speed route to London which will only take traffic from airlines (due to the exorbitant cost of the tickets) when the main rail link to the South West needs to be replaced is sheer fecklessness.
The Editor declares an interest: He and the British Gazette are in Cornwall.
Speaking the Truth unto the Nation
Yup, IKB could make mistakes. I guess too by then cost was a big issue. Here it was that he tried his ill-fated atmospheric railway. The leather seals first got hardened with the salt spray from the sea and when greased to soften them they became a tasty meal for rats.