Richard Drax, MP for South Dorset, yesterday asked the Minister of Transport to commission a study into a new, Weymouth to London rail link as a prelude to setting up a faster service.
The new route would pass through Weymouth, Dorchester West, Yeovil Junction and Salisbury stations en route to London. The new journey time could mean a reduction of 36 minutes on the current, longest journey time of three hours and one minute.
Richard Drax, accompanied by Marcus Fysh, MP for Yeovil; John Glen, MP for Salisbury; Matt Prosser, Chief Executive of North Dorset District Council, West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council; Peter Finney, Deputy Leader of Dorset County Council; and representatives of current franchise holders, South West Trains, met Claire Perry, Undersecretary of State for Transport, at an earlier working session which Drax had convened.
Later, during a speech in Westminster Hall, Drax spoke of the urgent need for new transport infrastructure in South Dorset.
“Take Portland Port,” he said, “commercial road traffic there is expected to treble in the years ahead, and the number of visiting cruise ships continues to rise.”
“In the centre of my constituency, a newly announced enterprise zone on the outskirts of Wool is expected to generate thousands of jobs—so too, hopefully, will our expanding marine and engineering industries, new museums and tourist attractions.”
“For all those to work, we need to improve our infrastructure, and with little scope for more roads, rail is the only option.”
Drax compared the proposed, new route through Yeovil and Salisbury to the current route through Bournemouth and Southampton, saying,
“With much of the infrastructure in place, it is more affordable and has major advantages.”
“It would reduce the journey time from Weymouth to London to two hours and 25 minutes, provide more room for passengers on the existing line through Bournemouth and Southampton, expand capacity and business opportunities across a number of south western constituencies, connect Dorset to Heathrow – I sorely hope that the planned expansion there eventually gets the go ahead – and take up some of the ample capacity on the Weymouth to Bristol line.”
The Minister replied that, while she did not want to burden Network Rail with “any more projects at the moment, given its enormous challenge of delivering the projects we have already set out,” she would ask her officials to find a way to get a better analysis of what “the range of costs might be for these improvements.”
At the same time, she asked interested MPs attending the debate and the meeting, together with the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and local councils, to get the project added to the current franchise consultation which ends on February 9.
“If we start to bring in the broader benefits, such as the housing that these transport improvements could underpin, the businesses that would move to the area and the local growth that could be unlocked, we could really start to capture the value that transport investment can bring,” she said. “We need to be in the business of improving infrastructure.”
“I am grateful that the Minister was so positive,” says Drax. “She has given us something to work towards. Certainly, the new option via Yeovil and Salisbury would bring untold benefits to South Dorset and indeed, to every stop along the new line."