Forum Presses on with Okehampton Rail Project
For more than a decade a campaign has been running for the re-establishment of a daily passenger service between Okehampton to Exeter and it looks like this dream is now coming closer to fruition.
Devon County Council originally established a forum for the people of North Cornwall, West Devon and North-West Devon to meet community aspirations regarding daily rail provision. The purpose of the forum (now known OkeRAIL Forum), is to lead and manage all steps necessary to re-establish a daily rail service from Okehampton to Exeter and in the future, look towards linking up with Tavistock through to Plymouth.
The group has covered some ground since its formation and the forum continues to grow in strength. It now consists of many member organisations who have each demonstrated they have the ability to provide tangible resources that can be used to actually help re-introduce train services to the local people.
Since the formation of the OkeRAIL Forum, OkeRAIL CIC (Community Interest Company) has also been formed with the support of Okehampton United Charities. This has helped to raise funds and provide the wherewithal to deliver the Royal Oke special train from Okehampton to Paddington earlier this year. It was a train journey that sold over 500 passenger tickets in just one week! Although other trains have departed from Okehampton to Paddington in recent years this was the first Pullman dining train for more than 50 years.
The CIC is also in the process of making an application to the Great Western Railway (GWR) customer and communities improvement fund for a study into the old railway bridge, linking the site of the car park to the proposed Okehampton Parkway station. The study would examine land ownership and access, a structural survey of the bridge and the provision of a passenger footpath.
As well as being convenient it is seen that a daily passenger service from Okehampton will help to regenerate the local economy of West Devon, Torridge and North Devon. For almost half a century, large areas of West Devon and North Cornwall have been without easy access to the national rail network. Conservative estimates believe this to affect over 100,000 people.
Problems with the Dawlish line in recent years have proven a lack of resilience to the rail network in the south-west and this has impacted both the economy both through business and tourism.
Plans are now afoot, and being discussed, for a new Okehampton Parkway station to be built to the east of Okehampton. This would provide easy access from the A30 and A386 and hopefully help reduce traffic within the town of Okehampton.
The Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP, Secretary of State for Transport, announced recently that the Department for Transport was now looking to run a trial service from Okehampton to Exeter.
The Forum continues to push ahead and a meeting was recently held with representatives from the Department for Transport locally. Forum members stressed to the DfT that they need to ‘future proof’ the line, so in time, it could be linked with Tavistock and Plymouth. Any stations constructed would need to be able to be converted for mainline use and provision for signalling improvements would need to be planned for future development of the line. It was pointed out that the introduction of a service would provide a gross value-added uplift of £3.3 million in the first year of operation.
Forum members have also stressed that with more than 900 additional homes being built in Okehampton during the coming few years, the more that is done to reduce the number of cars on the road, the better.
The distance between Bude and Exeter is just over 54 miles and through surveys carried out by ‘Destination Okehampton’, it has been found that people catching a train from Bude are more likely to drive to Exeter St David’s than anywhere else. If they could travel to Okehampton to catch a train to Exeter, the car journey would be reduced to just over 28 miles. A new group to support the re-opening of the railway to Okehampton and eventually Holsworthy and Bude has also been formed. Connect Bude (www.connectbude.uk) has four key objectives:
- to reconnect Bude and Holsworthy to the national rail network
- promote improved rail services between Okehampton and Exeter
- ensure the track bed of the former railway is protected
- gain community support for these objectives.
Overseas visitors spend an estimated £552 million in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset (published figures 2013) and a lot of this could be going into West Devon.
The Sunday summer trains from Okehampton to Exeter have proved a huge success in recent years. In 2016 the first summer train out of Okehampton had 109 passengers! Despite the temporary timetable for part of the 2017 season, passenger numbers are growing each week. The present Sunday service offers excellent value for money at £5.20 return to Exeter. To coincide with the school holidays, trips were also available to the popular seaside resorts of Exmouth, Dawlish and Teignmouth (£6.30 return) or Torquay and Paignton (£7.80 return). GroupSave tickets are available for three to nine people travelling together, saving a third on the total cost.
This service is about far more than trains to Exeter, it makes national and international destinations accessible. This year we have already had passengers travelling to and from Italy [Milan], Germany and Spain. Our passengers are not just from Okehampton, they regularly come from Bude, Launceston, Hatherleigh and Holsworthy. The train brings tourists into Okehampton as well.
Michael Ireland is working with Dan Okey of GWR to offer an enhanced summer trains service for 2018 with better connections to the national network and a special train programme of high speed services to Oxford, Tenby and London Paddington.
Mike Davies
Michael Ireland
OkeRail Forum