I believe it was to be a new inland route rather than using the old branch via Chudleigh which would have been quite slow.
Back in 1937 the dawlish avoiding line project from Exminster to Newton Abbot including some four tracking and a 2 mile tunnel through the Halden hills behind Teignmouth and Dawlish would have been completed in 1941 but for the start of the 2nd World War.
The scheme was funded by interest free Government loans to the then GWR.The land was bought and even "Pegged" out ready for construction to start.Also a new rail route onward from Newton Abbot to a point near Marley tunnel bypassing Totnes and Dainton and Rattery banks was also surveyed at the same time with hopes of a future further new route onward to Plymouth eventually and all to be engineered to a minimum I mile radius curvature for high speed.
For those interested here are the 1935/36 Great Western Railway plans for the new route from Exminster to Newton Abbot bypassing Teignmouth and Dawlish which are held at the Devon Record Office Archives at Sowton in Exeter under the following references.
Great Western Railway (Additional Powers) QS/DP/860 1935
Contents:
1) Railway No 1 (Newton Abbot and Dawlish): via parishes of Kingsteignton, Bishopsteignton, Urban Districts of Teignmouth and Dawlish; length 8 ¾ miles; commencing and terminating at junctions with South Devon Railway.
2)Bridge, River Diversions and Lands at Exeter: parish of Upton Pyne and Borough of Exeter.
Included are sections of intended works and published map showing 1).
Scale: 25" to the mile
Surveyor: R. Carpmael (Engineer)
Plans (pen, ink) and book of reference
Great Western Railway. QS/DP/868 1936
Contents:
1) Railway No 2. (Dawlish and Exminster): via Urban District of Dawlish, parishes of Mamhead, Kenton, Powderham, Exminster; length 7½ miles; commencing at junction with railway No 1 (see QS/DP/860), terminating at junction with South Devon Railway; includes sections of railway and road diversions en route.
2) Lands at Totnes (and at Denham in County of Buckingham).
Scale: 25" to the mile
Surveyor: R. Carpmael (Engineer)
Plan (pen, ink) and book of reference
Unfortunately the 2nd World War stopped these schemes progressing and speedwise Cornwall and Plymouth have been left on little more than a branch line really west of Exeter to Penzance.The route would of left the existing line at Exminster hugging the Halden hills down the Exe valley behind Starcross at Kenton down to the back of Dawlish where it would have gone through a 2 mile tunnel avoiding Dawlish and Teignmouth emerging from the hillside at Bishopsteignton halfway up the the Teign estuary.History will probably record that this was the far South Wests last chance for any rail infrastructure and therefore journey time improvements.How times have changed