ACE Rail (Atlantic Coast-Exeter) is the organisation behind this and behind that is Tim Steer, Tarka Rail Association and ACE Rail lead officer.
Another banner was posted at Tarka Line station, Eggesford.
Joining Tim at Crediton railway station on Friday morning, January 27, was GWR Regional Growth Manager David Whiteway and representatives of councils along the line.
The banners were made possible by funding from Railfuture which has 12 branches in England plus Wales and Scotland involved in local issues, which come together to support Railfuture on national campaigns.
Railfuture is campaigning for a bigger and better railway in Britain. There is a Devon and Cornwall branch.
Saying how pleased GWR was to support Tarka Rail Association and ACE Rail in its campaign to extend the Tarka Line to Bideford, Mr Whiteway added: “Last year we awarded the campaign £6,500 from the GWR Community Fund, which allows us to invest in projects that really make a difference to our customers and communities at a local level.
“We have seen that with the reopening of the Dartmoor Line to Okehampton, how a local community can benefit from having rail services restored and look forward to working with the Association to help it achieve its ambitions.”
Tim added that the next step would be to have the fully funded Business Case report that is due at the end of March.
“This would bring a report on the existing Tarka Line and reasons why the infrastructure is in need of upgrades for resilience, capacity and frequency.
“The report will then go into detail on why we need an extension to Bideford (indeed the largest cut off by rail community in the entire South West peninsula) and the suggested routes the local authorities can put into their local plan.
“If the Initial Business Case is successful, we can move with all local authorities at working on a Strategic Outline Business Case,” he said.
In fact, finding funding for the Strategic Outline Business Case is one of the next key challenges for the group.
They have to show beyond any reasonable doubt that the ACE Rail project is a must-have, not a nice-to-have, for the long term prospects of the communities of mid and northern Devon.
Roger Blake for Railfuture, Director for Infrastructure and Networks, National Board, added that the breadth of support shown in Crediton “helps give us absolute confidence” that they can and shall pass that test.
Tim added that really great news was that on Tuesday, January 24, North Devon MP Selaine Saxby went to Westminster to give a speech at the Restoring your railway debate.
This can be seen at: https://www.selainesaxby.org.uk/restoring-your-railway-fund-debate-24th-january-2023. .
In that she specifically said to the Rail Minister: “I hope that the Department considers reopening the restoring your railway fund to new bids.
“My North Devon constituency would benefit considerably from the route I mentioned. I hope that the Minister takes that ask seriously ... “
The councils represented at Crediton on Friday morning, most of whom had travelled by train, were Cllr Liz Brookes-Hocking, Mayor of Crediton, Bideford’s Mayor Jude Gubb from Bideford Town Council her council was “100 per cent behind this”, deputy mayor Jamie McKenzie, ex mayor and now town councillor David Ratcliff and his wife Phillippa Ratcliff and also Bideford East County Councillor Linda Hellyer.
From Barnstaple Town Council was the Barnstaple North County Councillor Ian Roome.
Cllr Ratcliff said that about two years ago he had been invited to the unveiling of the name plate Bideford by the chairman of the Heritage Railway.
Talking to people he had remarked how wonderful it would be to have Bideford reconnected giving a rail service all the way to London.
He was introduced to Tim, there was more discussion and that was how the idea was born. “It all began by a chance meeting of the two of us two years ago,” he said.
Crediton Mayor Cllr Elizabeth Brookes-Hocking said it was really exciting to have the thought of people being able to go to Bideford by train and to cycle back if they wished.