CENTRAL Devon MP Mel Stride was in Okehampton on Friday, May 28, for a meeting with representatives from Network Rail and Great Western Railway.

He was joined by Okehampton’s newly-elected Devon County Councillor Lois Samuel and Hatherleigh and Chagford County Councillor James McInnes.

The trio heard about the excellent progress being made with the Dartmoor Line and that an estimated 500 workers were involved with delivering the huge project.

At one stage an 11-mile stretch of the track had been laid in just 20 days.

Speaking after the meeting Mr Stride, who has helped to lead the local campaign for the service over the past decade, said: “No-one should underestimate what a mammoth project this is and I am grateful to the Network Rail employees who are working hard.

"It was good to hear that we are on track for the service to begin by the end of 2021 and it was also useful to discuss the goal of establishing a parkway station on the eastern edge of Okehampton to provide better access for residents and to help avoid congestion through the town.”

The Dartmoor Line, which will run from Okehampton to Exeter via Crediton, will be the first rail service in the country that was lost to the Beeching cuts of the 1960s and 1970s to be brought back under the Government’s Restoring Your Railways initiative.

The Government committed more than £40 million to deliver the project in the March Budget.