Lack of rail improvements will deepen transport pit

“CharlieDodd I noticed that myself when I visited Exeter city centre last week.But the loss of just one coffee shop and that's all it is due to I suspect its now relatively peripheral position on the edge of the city centre is merely a drop in Exeter's otherwise buoyant retail and service sectors.The closure of one branch of starbucks http://tinyurl.com/c2s2zym has been more than compensated by the opening of the John Lewis store which also has a cafe funny enough selling coffee.
Basically the Exeter economy is relatively unaffected by the economic crisis and is still growing rapidly unlike Plymouth which seems destined to stagnate economically at best or continue to decline at worst as things stand.
Even when the economy picks up again the slack will be taken up by the better connected cities elsewhere in the country like Exeter as has always happened historically.Only when investors have exhausted opportunities elsewhere do they consider Plymouth by which time of the economic cycle the next downturn is upon us and Plymouth once again misses the investment boat.In desperation we end up having to grab anything or miss out completely. Hence the dreadful outside appearance of Drake Circus shopping centre and the Staples building etc etc.That sadly is the way it is for Plymouth at the moment in the 21st century because of our economic peripherality.
But you probably wont understand what I am talking about as most informed people would.”

“Incidentally I just visited the ThisisExeter website and this item caught my eye-
"Global coffee giant Starbucks has closed one of its Exeter city centre branches after six years of trading"..
Huh, so much for companies 'falling over themselves' to invest in Exeter..:)”

“..Dunthiel said- 'No Charlie, the vast majority of tourists will ask 'where or what is Plymouth?'..

Only if they're from Mars mate..:)”

“Remember that Charlie lived in Leicester where he got shot at, his best job was a hotel porter, and he lives in a rented flat by himself, and votes UKIP so his ability to discuss economics is severely limited”

“Urban motorways, such as the M4 through Newport and the M5 in Birmingham, are permitted to have lower standards (i.e. a tighter radius) than rural motorways. As you say these curved sections have advisory speed limits of 50mph so, even if an exception was made, it would be shooting ourselves in the foot to 'upgrade' the A38 to a motorway only to see numerous sections appear where we're advised to do 50.”

“Dunthiel - The M4 motorway around Newport and Port Talbot has nasty bends and speed restrictions. Prefer the A38 to Exeter myself.”

“No Charlie, the vast majority will ask 'where or what is Plymouth?'.

The UK receives around 30 million tourists per year, approximately 3 million of these are from the US with another half million from Canada. Plymouth receives approximately 25,000 overnight stays on the back of 75,000 annual visits from international tourists, but in reality these figures are skewed because they include some visits by overseas students studying here.

That is a staggeringly bad performance, considering the wealth of international history which Plymouth has to offer visitors from all corners of the world. But when you look at our road, rail and now non existent air links, it's not hard to see why.

If Plymouth attracted just 1% of this market, we would more than quadruple our annual international tourist numbers and the money they spend here.”

“Sure, little Exeter may have an agenda of encouraging business investment at the moment, so if it wants to become one vast business park or truck stop it's none of my business..:)
But ask any tourist arriving at Heathrow where they intend going, and Plymouth will be high on their list because of it's fame (Mayflower/Lt John Chard of Zulu/Scott of the Antarctic/Lawrence of Arabia/Drake/Raleigh/Cattedown Caveman/Eddystone Light/Marines/Royal Navy/The Hoe/The Sound etc, etc)
By comparison, poor little Exeter has got nowt”

“So where are they Charlie? Something is driving investment away from Plymouth and towards Exeter. We can all see this. Plymouth has nothing but a Naval base and a University.”

“..Tim said- 'Poor transport links will discourage investment in Plymouth'..

I'm sure no investor worth his salt would miss the business potential of setting up in a big world-famous city of 260,000 people like Plymouth.
Civilisation doesn't end at little Exeter (population 120,000) as most people think, it's simply a gateway to Plymouth and the whole of Cornwall beyond..:)”