Dartmoor rail line reopening after 49 years

The line between Okehampton and Exeter is due to have trains every two hours

A special rail service has run on the Dartmoor line in Devon, ahead of regular services restarting for the first time in 49 years.

Great Western Railway (GWR) trains will operate on the route between Okehampton and Exeter from Saturday.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps rode on a train from Crediton to Okehampton on Wednesday to open the line.

It is part of a government scheme to restore abandoned rail lines, with regular services resuming on Saturday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said transport was "essential to levelling up and spreading opportunity".

He added: "As we reopen the Dartmoor line, we are rightly reconnecting communities, giving passengers the chance to choose rail over the road and travel from Exeter to Okehampton on greener, cleaner modes of transport."

The train service put on to mark the opening of the line carried local school children, campaigners, railway staff and supporters of the project.

Bosses said the reopened route would benefit visitors to Dartmoor and regional commuters

Great Western Railway will run trains every two hours, seven days a week, with the plan to increase it to an hourly service in 2022.

Since 1997, the line has only been open during some Sundays in the summer after regular services were withdrawn in 1972.

Mr Shapps said: "By restoring the Dartmoor Line we are undoing 50 years of damage, reconnecting a community and creating new opportunities for jobs, tourism, education and recreation.

"We have made it our mission to reverse cuts made in the Beeching era of the 1960s. The passion, nostalgia and enthusiasm for that ambition is clear right across the country."

Repairs to bridges

The work has been completed in nine months, with track operator Network Rail saying it laid 11 miles (18km) of new track, installed 24,000 concrete sleepers and 29,000 tonnes of ballast in 20 days.

Repairs have also been made to 21 structures along the route, including four bridges.

Other infrastructure work has included level crossing improvements and the installation of railway communications equipment.

Vegetation clearance, earth and drainage works and fencing had also been completed, and further infrastructure work would continue to take place to increase the line speed to enable an hourly service in 2022, managers said.

More work was due to be carried out over the winter, including on the station buildings, to enable the restoration of the café and other facilities, they added.

The Restoring Your Railway fund was launched in January 2020 to reinstate axed local services and restore closed stations, many of which were cut following Dr Beeching's report on "The Reshaping of British Railways" in 1963.