Exclusive by Alan Quick

MORE than 50 delegates joined Railfuture’s "Via Crediton" rail meeting at the Boniface Centre in Crediton on Saturday, November 28.

Restoration of a full daily train service to Okehampton was the key theme.

Railfuture Devon and Cornwall branch chairman Gerard Duddridge said that the special summer Sunday Okehampton to Exeter trains take around 42 minutes to St David’s railway station, but this would drop to 24 minutes if the track was upgraded to become the second Plymouth to Exeter main line avoiding Dawlish.

New road access for buses and cars from the A30 near Okehampton railway station would benefit large areas of West Devon and North Cornwall and reduce traffic through the town centre.

In the longer term a park and ride station might be built at Sourton or Okehampton (Exeter Road).

Dr Michael Ireland, chairman of Destination Okehampton and a town councillor, explained that they undertook research on the re-opening proposal and were the lead local council on the railway project.

They worked with others such as the Peninsula Rail Group and Peninsula Rail Task Force. They met with Claire Perry MP (Under Secretary of State, Department of Transport) on August 7, 2014, who said: "that the country was on the edge of a rail renaissance and that the South West had been short-changed by both road and rail network services over a number of years".

John Burch, vice-chairman of the Tarka Rail Association, outlined the success of the adjacent Barnstaple line which shares the same route through Crediton.

The number of users has more than tripled since 2001 to 615,000 in 2014.

He said capacity to run more trains is needed, plus line speed improvements and resilience to track damage from bad weather and flooding.

Open level crossings such as Salmon Pool near Crediton remain an issue and need to be replaced with automatic barriers, he added.

Chris Austin from Railfuture’s Networks Group looked at the success of the recent Borders Railway re-opening in Scotland and Ebbw Vale in Wales. Since the Okehampton line closed in 1972, rail demand has grown across the rail network and would also have done so from Okehampton’s growth.

Road congestion, as in Exeter and parking constraints at railhead stations encourage this growth.

"The railway provides greater journey time reliability and internet access to travel information encourages younger age users," said Mr Austin.

Gerard Duddridge, chairman, Railfuture Devon and Cornwall, said that establishing a daily service to Okehampton, with approval of the Department for Transport, requires a business case to be demonstrated and a sponsor to lead the re-opening process.

He said funding would be needed and might come from the Local Enterprise Partnership, Devon County Council, West Devon Borough Council, from Network Rail or the train operating company such as Great Western Railway.

Mr Duddridge said that the meeting closed with questions "and a strong consensus that the re-opening needs to happen."