Looking ahead at North Devon’s rail and infrastructure future

Well done to all the organisations who made Barnstaple Railfest 2024 such a massive success!

The opening ceremony for the 170th anniversary of the North Devon line was well attended by dignitaries, the GWR regional growth manager, the Network Rail community manager and their Industry Programme director. 

What a historic moment it was to hear the original 170 year-old speech made by the Barnstaple town clerk being read out by the current town clerk as well as speeches by the town reverend and the town mayor. 

Thousands of visitors turned up to walk the rail trail, view the exhibitions, see the model railway layouts and learn about the regional campaigns at the Railfuture Devon and Cornwall branch stall – it was nice to meet and listen to the chair of OkeRail Dr Ireland about what a tremendous success the Dartmoor line to Okehampton has been and continues to grow with the line’s users – in fact a brand new Okehampton Interchange (parkway) station is about to be developed to take more users which will make Mid Devon a much more sustainable district.

We all know by now that the new government has set out a mandate to build 1.5 million homes by 2030. 

North Devon Council and Torridge District Council are Northern Devon’s planning authorities – they will now have a mandate to plan and approve large-scale housing every year. Housing is needed and we must tackle the local housing crises by building affordable homes and social housing as well. 

What would these large-scale housing developments look like without supporting infrastructure? 

No water treatment, schools, GPs, dentists, hospital, connecting and adopted roads, shops and (of course), sustainable transport would create a town that resembled a slum: it would create a very deprived area. 

Any views you have that the new government is not going to provide any supporting infrastructure to go with the housing are actually false: the truth is you cannot

have one without the other and that is why central government has now reset the infrastructure delivery system with the ‘National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority’.

We already know how deprived Bideford in the Torridge district is and more housing is only going to continue the deprivation unless the supporting infrastructure is constructed.

Some infrastructure such as hospitals, GPs and dentists require skilled employment/labour to come to North Devon on a daily/weekly basis or to locate here however, Torridge is lacking from poor transport and this has been highlighted as one of the reasons that district is suffering in comparison to the neighbouring district.

It is not to say that North Devon is without challenges – Ilfracombe has data to confirm it as another area of deprivation.

Many readers would wonder if the line from Bideford to Barnstaple is now going to be scrapped? 

The Bideford line was never part of the old government’s Restoring your railways programme and nothing will stop the study work that has already commenced thanks to the Northern Devon Railway Development Alliance. 

The upgrading of the current North Devon (Tarka) line for two faster services per hour to Exeter – it is needed to bring in more skilled employment to the North Devon area, see local residents gain from the employment market of Exeter (and beyond) and of course for local students to study in higher education faculties. 

So you see, any railway is two way – it takes the employed off to bring back wages, it takes students off to bring back newly-learnt certified skills and it takes visitors to Devon to holiday and back home. 

The North Devon line takes you to matches, events, festivals, airports and towns so, rejoice for it will always be here!