Regular daily passenger trains will run between Exeter and Okehampton for the first time since 1972 from 20 November when the route is fully reopened.
The c£40 million project is the first of the Government’s Restoring Your Railway fund reopenings to be completed, just nine months after funding was formally approved. It is the culmination of decades of campaigning by local bodies in the region and has involved extensive collaboration between The Department for Transport, Network Rail, Great Western Railway, Devon County Council, Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership and local campaigners and MPs.
Journey times between Exeter and Okehampton will be operated by GWR and take approximately 40 minutes, with trains initially running two-hourly, stepping up to an hourly service from Spring 2022.
While track, signalling, GSM-R and other work is complete, there remains finishing work to undertake at Okehampton station, which will have information screens, a help point, smartcard validation points, ticket machines and a waiting room. The station’s popular café will reopen in 2022, with comm…
