DART+ (DART Expansion)

Any link on this? Might explain why the government have seemingly held off on the Dart Replacement order, although the most likely reason is that they're just busy with other stuff.

So, on the JR for Dart+ North, I've been looking at it, and it's somewhat complicated.

IR want to put an OHLE depot on IR lands beside the AITL land, which requires access by heavy goods vehicles. This means that the access road down to the car park at the station (through which the depot will be accessed), is woefully inadequate. In truth, it's inadequate for the current use, as shown by the huge amount of car crashes there. IR want to regularise access to the car park/depot, which involves moving the access away from the rail line and bridge, and making the approach 90 degrees from the main road. They also create an official bus stop at that point, replacing the current "side of the country road" stop.

To do this, they need to CPO the land. It's a bigger land take than you'd expect, as HGVs need access, which means wider turning circles. IR have said that they'll maintain access to the farm land, and indeed have designed in a gate for the land. AITL say that they'll now need to talk to IR about any future plans for that frontage, instead of just applying to the council.

AITL also say that IR should have looked elsewhere for the depot, including the IR owned car park on the other side of the tracks.

Overall, the argument that AITL is losing their road frontage is not strong. IR have made pains to show that they're willing to engage in the future on any plans, and a presumption that they're telling the truth must be in place. I definitely think that IR would be more than happy to make accommodations in the future.

The main argument that AITL will be going with, as far as I can see, is that IR didn't need to make that location the depot, and didn't look elsewhere. It's a stronger argument, but does have it's limits. Could it have been done in the carpark on the other side of the tracks? Sure, definitely. The down side of that, however, is that the car park is often quite full already, and that's before there's increased services going there. Does it make sense to reduce the park and ride ability from there? Will other locations on the line have the same or similar issues?

In my opinion, I think that this is something that can, and probably will, be settled right before it gets to the court room. The costs and the risks go up dramatically after that point, so that's when I expect this to settle, if it does at all. In court, it will depend on if IR can defend choosing that site, without looking at other locations.

As an aside, it's this kind of thing that makes me say that our planning system isn't working. You can talk all you want about our planners making better decisions and better applications, but at a certain point, there's literally too much law and regulations that you need to comply with. To me, it's obvious and common sense that Dart+ North should be able to CPO this land to enable a depot, but because IR haven't given a good enough reason for the depot to be sited there, the depot is put at risk.