FEATURE
Letting the train take the strain Campaigners who have long worked to see the reinstatement of a regular train service from Okehampton were jubilant at the announcement in March of a two hourly, seven day a week service between Okehampton and Exeter commencing later this year. Dr Michael Ireland, chair of OkeRail, takes up the story... Railways are about arrivals and departures. The Okehampton to Exeter line, known as the Dartmoor line, departing from Exeter Central and St David’s stations, has had significance for the community over its 150 year history. The first train from Exeter arrived at Okehampton in 1871. The last departure was the service to Exeter marking the line’s closure to regular services on June 5th, 1972, just over 100 years after its opening. This date has a personal significance for me - my 24th birthday. In the intervening years, the line has been keep alive by a number of community initiatives to provide ad hoc passenger services, freight and aggregate trains. Freight in the form of agricultural fertiliser and feed continued to be delivered to the goods sidings (now the site of the Okehampton Youth Hostel) until the 1980s, a decade after the cessation of regular passenger services. The line has been ‘saved’ from being dismantled by carrying stone for track ballast from Meldon quarry until those trains ceased in 2008. The station itself fell into disrepair until renovated by Devon County Council in the 1990s.
Keeping the railway alive The renovation was followed by the introduction of Sunday ‘Rover’ services to Okehampton from Exeter; with connecting bus services to Dartmoor and the Tamar valley line at Gunnislake. 6
Numerous attempts have been made to realise the potential of the line through tourists and leisure services. The Dartmoor Railway was borne out of a partnership between Aggregate Industries, the owner of the line from Coleford Junction to Meldon, Devon County Council, Dartmoor National Park and RMS Locotec. Janet Carpenter - past Mayor of Okehampton - remembers working on the trains to Exeter from 1997 to 2007 as a guard and ticket inspector. Since 2004, rail services have been operated by leaseholders, first Ealing Community Transport and then IOWA Pacific Holdings. Their UK subsidiary, British and American Railways (BARS), planned to operate a freight and passenger service on the line. When stone traffic from Meldon Quarry ceased, the railway continued to operate special events trains at Christmas and a limited service from Meldon to Sampford Courteney Station. What were successful were the summer Sunday service to Exeter, run by GWR with support from Devon County Council. These services were complemented by special trains run by GWR and OkeRail, to London, Stratford-upon-Avon and Weymouth. The importance of these services were that they made the case for the reintroduction of the railway on a seven day a week basis, the fantastic news which was announced on March 19th this year.
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