By Nora Parminter

DEVON County Councillor Nick Way (Crediton Rural) will be putting forward a motion to Devon County Council (DCC) at a meeting to be held on October 1.

Improving travelling choices for rail passengers has long been a goal of Devon County Council. It has been an aspiration of many, for some considerable time, to introduce a regular and seamless Barnstaple to Waterloo service on the Tarka Line to serve the various communities, including Crediton, located along the line.

The line has seen continuing growth in the numbers of passengers and much new investment to its infrastructure over recent years by Network Rail and the rail operator.

An opportunity to introduce this new service now appears to be a real possibility, at no extra cost to the public purse.

Cllr Way explained: “Accordingly we call on Devon County Council to use every endeavour to deliver this service improvement at the earliest opportunity.

“It would be good to have extra trains to provide this service, although it is a possibility that one could run existing trains into Waterloo each day and an early morning service, stopping at Crediton and village stations could arrive at the Capital between 9.30am and 10am.

“Whilst the journey time will take longer than the service provided terminating at Paddington on the main London line, it would be a great improvement on what we have now.

“An extra train or increasing the number of carriages on existing trains would also take some of the pressure off current, over- crowded services running via Exeter.”

What do you think of Nick’sWay’s proposal?

Please let Cllr Way know by email at: [email protected] .

Alternatively, share your views with fellow Courier readers. Send a letter, suitable for publication, by email to: [email protected] .