'No timetable' for Bideford rail link as project builds case for return

A transport planner who has spent years championing the idea of a new rail link between Bideford and Barnstaple told Torridge and North Devon councillors last week that the project is advancing through formal government planning stages, though it could be decades before a train runs.

Roger Blake, Infrastructure Director for Railfuture and acting convenor of the Northern Devon Railway Development Alliance (NDRDA), addressed the Torridge and North Devon Joint Planning Policy Committee on Friday (24 April) to update elected members on progress towards a potential reinstatement of rail services to the town.

Mr Blake, a man from Kent who has lived in London for 43 years and spent 30 of them working as a transport planner for a London borough, was first drawn to Bideford in December 2021 after being approached by local people keen to explore the prospects of restoring a train service. 

His visit followed the Department for Transport’s approval of funding to reinstate services on the Dartmoor Line, a decision that reignited hopes for rail revival across the region.

The idea has been on the council’s agenda since July 2022, when this same committee resolved that a Bideford to Barnstaple rail link should be considered as part of its People and Place project. 

This morning’s address was the first time Mr Blake had appeared before the committee since that resolution.

The NDRDA, founded in December 2023, now brings together around four dozen partner and stakeholder organisations. 

Mr Blake was clear that the alliance has not committed to building a railway; its role is to gather and test evidence. 

“We don’t have a timetable,” he told members, “but we do have a scheme development programme.”

That programme follows the Treasury and Department for Transport’s Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline. 

The alliance has so far published a Preliminary Strategic Business Case, reported to Torridge's External Overview and Scrutiny Committee on April 1. 

The next required step is a formal Strategic Outline Business Case, which the NDRDA hopes to complete by March 2028, in time to align with the Local Plan timetable and give weight to the council's 2022 resolution. 

Government approval of that document would then need to be secured before any Outline Business Case could be developed, and detailed engineering work would only follow after that.

The scale of what is being proposed was not understated. 

If a new rail link were eventually approved and built, Mr Blake noted, it would arrive roughly half a century after the North Devon Link Road, the Torridge Bridge and the Tarka Trail, all of which were under construction in the 1980s. 

Any eventual application for a Development Consent Order would face independent examination by the Planning Inspectorate, likely within the Local Plan period.

Railfuture is the UK's leading independent voluntary organisation campaigning for a larger and improved railway network for passengers and freight.