New Dartmoor Line clocks up 120k journeys and exceeds all expectations

THE Dartmoor Line – which was the first to be opened under the Department for Transport’s Restoring Your Railways scheme – has doubled its passenger numbers in terms of original expectations, latest figures have revealed. There have been 120,000 journeys on the line between Exeter and Okehampton since it opened on November 20 last year – twice the predicted amount.

About 40% of the passengers travelled to Okehampton, which lost its passenger services in 1972.

The 15½-mile route survived as a freight-only line serving Meldon Quarry and later became the Dartmoor Railway, a heritage line, from 1997 to 2019.

It is now planned to build an Okehampton Parkway station to the east of the town.