North Devon's vital rail link declared a 'strategic economic risk' by council

Devon County Council has formally declared the Tarka Line a strategic economic risk and committed to driving urgent modernisation of one of the South West's most heavily used rural railways.

The council voted on Tuesday 8 April to declare the Tarka Line a strategic economic risk to the county, formally committing to accelerate a modernisation programme with the goal of delivering half-hourly services at peak times between Barnstaple and Exeter.

The council also resolved that its Leader, cabinet members and senior officers must make the Tarka Line a standing priority in all future engagements with rail, transport and relevant funding bodies, a significant escalation from expressing support in principle to actively driving delivery.

The Barnstaple-to-Exeter line carries around 900,000 passenger journeys per year, a figure that has tripled since 2006, yet suffers from single-track sections, Victorian infrastructure and repeated weather-related closures. 

Three separate disruptions struck the route during the winter of 2025/26 alone, including a prolonged shutdown caused by Storm Chandra.

Councillor Graham Bell, who brought the motion, welcomed the unanimous support. 

“While the entire council is clearly behind this, it is good to have the formal support of the entire Cabinet to have the Tarka Line defined as a strategic asset for the entire county,” he said.

He acknowledged the scale of the challenge ahead. “Eight years feels like a long time, but this has a £100 million price tag, and we're building out of 60 years of under-investment. Recently replaced sleepers were put down in the 1940s.”

The council's resolutions warn that the line's hourly service frequency is actively deterring passengers from towns including Ilfracombe, Bideford, Torrington, South Molton and Braunton from using rail at all. 

The agreed modernisation programme targets half-hourly peak services,  a significant step change for a region where Barnstaple regularly features in international congestion rankings.

North Devon and Torridge together account for more than 20 per cent of Devon's population, yet the communities they contain, many of them highly rural, have few transport alternatives. 

Young people and those without access to a car depend on the Tarka Line for education, employment and social connection.

“We must ensure that no-one forgets that this is a vital strategic asset for all of Devon,” Councillor Bell said.

The council noted that climate change poses a growing and predictable risk to the line. 

Multiple bridges and sections of waterlogged trackbed have triggered recent closures, and projections suggest flood-related disruption will increase. 

The council described continued inaction as “a known and escalating risk rather than an unforeseen one.”

In February, North Devon MP Ian Roome presented a petition to Parliament backed by more than 3,000 signatures, calling on the government to press Network Rail and Great Western Railway to prioritise structural upgrades on the line.

Improvements to Barnstaple station backed

It has been separately confirmed that improvements to Barnstaple Rail Station will take place later this year, designed to better connect buses and cycles to the rail network. 

Councillor Bell said capacity must keep pace with rising demand.

“With the DCC improvements to Barnstaple Rail Station later this year, we need to be prepared to enable even more people to use our already overcrowded service,” he said. 

He also called for improved bus replacement arrangements during engineering works to minimise disruption to the workers and students who rely on the service daily.

The Northern Devon Railway Development Alliance, which includes representatives from Torridge, Mid-Devon and multiple town and parish councils, has been developing a credible, fundable modernisation programme. 

Both Peninsula Transport and the Devon & Torbay Combined County Authority have already adopted strategies supporting Tarka Line upgrades.