Dawlish’s storm damaged railway line has reopened, reconnecting the south west rail service with the rest of the UK following an estimated loss of £50m in tourism income alone during the closure.

A section of track was swept away with part of the sea wall in early February, cutting off the service linking Cornwall and much of Devon with the rest of the UK. The track has been rebuilt two weeks ahead of schedule at a cost of £35m – a relatively small amount compared with the estimated losses for the region.

Sir Tim Smit, founder of Cornwall's Eden Project, told Radio 4’s Today programme : “One of the problems I think we face down here is a sort of political inertia. Because we don't have, if you like, the levers of power to make us seem important enough.

“We get viewed by the capital as if it's still at the old days of the Cornish Riviera, with a few nice things to do for people who've got wealth to come down and have holidays, but actually it's a really thriving place. I mean, it's one of the hubs of the creative industries in Britain. Yet you wouldn't know that the way we're talked about".

Prime Minister David Cameron, who travelled to Dawlish to mark the reopening, hailed it as "a great day" and said the south-west of England was "open once again".

Carolyn Custerson, VisitDevon chair and chief executive of the English Riviera Tourism Company, said: “We are delighted that the train line is now re-opening through Dawlish. Devon is one of the UK’s top holiday destinations and many tourism businesses have suffered as a result of the closure.”

Custerson said bookings leading up to Easter weekend are estimated at being 23 per cent down in Devon and that the crisis has cost the county around £31m. Malcolm Bell of Visit Cornwall also estimated an £18m loss for Cornwall during the period of closure.

Richard Cuming, chair of English Riviera Attractions, has said he believes there will be a significant recovery once the Easter holiday is under way, but added that the impact of the storm damage on trade highlighted the value of the proposed tourism business improvement district (BID) to guarantee future investment in marketing and to compete with other south coast areas such as Bournemouth.