Plymouth freeport status fuels Tavistock line revival hopes

Campaigners believe that Plymouth’s new designation as a freeport could improve the prospects for reopening the inland route to Exeter via Bere Alston, Tavistock and Okehampton.

OkeRail spokesman, county councillor and former train driver Richard Westlake said the new freight generated can be best moved by rail, but not over the problematic coastal route via Dawlish and over the steep banks between Plymouth and Newton Abbot.

The creation of the freeport and the wider Plymouth and South Devon business ‘freezone’ offers tax breaks for the region’s marine industries clustered around the dockyard, making it easier to import raw materials and to export finished goods.

Meanwhile, Devon County Council is awaiting the Government’s response to its latest business case for reopening the Bere Alston-Tavistock line.

Reinstating the former London and South Western route northwards to Okehampton is seen as a much greater undertaking, because of the large-scale building on the old trackbed through the centre of Tavistock since its closure in 1968.