Line between Exeter and Okehampton set to reopen later this year, as government delivers first project of its Restoring Your Railway Fund in the south-west
Regular passenger services are set to be restored on a popular railway line in the south-west of England for the first time in almost 50 years, thanks to £40.5 million of investment, the government has announced today (19 March 2021).
The Department for Transport, Network Rail and Great Western Railway (GWR) are working together to reopen the line between Exeter and Okehampton to passengers all year round. Since 1997, the line has only been open during the summer after a regular service was withdrawn in 1972.
A service will initially run every 2 hours later this year, with the expectation it will increase to an hourly service towards the end of 2022. This will benefit students heading to colleges in Exeter as well as tourists travelling in the other direction towards Okehampton for Dartmoor, easing congestion on local roads.
This is the first project to see services restored under the government’s Restoring Your Railway Fund, launched in January 2020 to reinstate axed local services and restore closed stations. The fund is focused on delivering schemes that can level up the country, reinvigorating high streets, reconnecting cut-off communities and boosting opportunity across the country.
The government has also announced £37.4 million of funding for the critical third phase of works to improve resilience on the coastal railway between Holcombe and Dawlish. This is in addition to a £341 million package of rail enhancements already committed across the south-west.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:
Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris said:
Network Rail is set to begin work later this summer on a rockfall shelter and netting to address instability on an area of steep, high cliffs to the north of Parson’s Tunnel between Holcombe and Dawlish.
This is part of the South West Rail Resilience Programme to create a more resilient railway after storms caused significant damage to the line in 2014, closing the railway for 8 weeks and severing the south-west peninsula from the rest of the network.
Phase 1 of the programme – to build a new £80 million seawall on the seafront west of Dawlish station to protect 360m of railway and homes behind it – was completed in July 2020 and opened by the Rail Minister in September.
Work on the second phase of the new seawall – to extend it a further 415m eastwards from Colonnades to Coastguards – began in November 2020 with support from an innovative 8-legged jack-up barge, known as a ‘Wavewalker’. Work is ongoing and is expected to be completed by 2023.
Exeter College Principal and Chief Executive John Laramy CBE said:
Pamela Woods, Chair of Dartmoor National Park Authority, said,
Today’s news comes on top of £341 million of rail enhancements already announced in the south-west, including: