When branding confuses

The article on Network Rail seeking customer input over the future of the Tarka Line ( RAIL 819) inadvertently exposes the confusion that can result from attempts to brand railway lines for marketing purposes.

The article is about the ExeterBarnstaple rail service. But in the third paragraph, a further titular variation is introduced - we are told that Network Rail is forming a North Devon Line Strategy Group.

‘Exeter-Barnstaple’ and ‘North Devon Line’ tell us where the line is. Tarka Line sounds like a heritage railway, probably with steam locomotives. Except to the minority of people familiar with Henry Williamson’s book about an otter, it could be anywhere.

Surely it is time that attempts to brand rail services in ways like this were abandoned, in favour of explicit indications of the places they serve? G Prosser, Barnstaple