| Almost lost - the railway to Barnstaple - from the archives Posted by grahame at 11:02, 5th September 2025 |     |
From Devon Live
Devon rail line narrowly escaped Beeching axe
A last-minute reprieve on ageing bridges spared two West Country rail routes from the scrapheap, newly examined papers reveal — and the lines might never have returned had the closure plan gone ahead.
Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership manager Richard Burningham discovered documents at the National Archives detailing how British Rail moved in 1965 to shut passenger services from Exeter to Okehampton and Barnstaple rather than fund urgent bridge renewals at Cowley Bridge. The replacement cost was put at £327,000 — estimated in the papers as nearly £6.5 million in today’s money — and the board argued the spend could not be justified.
A last-minute reprieve on ageing bridges spared two West Country rail routes from the scrapheap, newly examined papers reveal — and the lines might never have returned had the closure plan gone ahead.
Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership manager Richard Burningham discovered documents at the National Archives detailing how British Rail moved in 1965 to shut passenger services from Exeter to Okehampton and Barnstaple rather than fund urgent bridge renewals at Cowley Bridge. The replacement cost was put at £327,000 — estimated in the papers as nearly £6.5 million in today’s money — and the board argued the spend could not be justified.
| Re: Almost lost - the railway to Barnstaple - from the archives Posted by Witham Bobby at 11:24, 5th September 2025 | |
A narrow escape. I'm not sure if the Bristol Divisional management had taken over from Plymouth on these routes at this time. But the Bristol managers sure had a zeal for shutting stuff and taking out infrastructure. Notably, the Minehead branch closure, and the singling of the Wilton to Pinhoe and Wolvercote Jcn to Norton Jcn main lines
An encounter with several who were out on a manager's jolly and called in at Witham one afternoon, and were boasting about how little would be left there, once the 'box was gone and control moved to the yet-to-be-built Westbury panel was a huge driver in my decision to part company with the big railway. I felt they were vultures
So if the bridge replacement at Cowley Bridge would have cost "£6.5 million in today's money", how much would it actually have cost with today's consultancies, architects and engineers at the help? £65 million wouldn't be a bad guess!
| Re: Almost lost - the railway to Barnstaple - from the archives Posted by Mark A at 11:37, 5th September 2025 | |
It's good that it was retained but a friend's experiences of the route by the mid-70s was that it was circling the edge of being in the living dead category - her views possibly coloured by the regular experience of making a connection out of the cross country services at that time. The consequences of the connection missing the last train to Barnstaple before 6pm being a near three hour wait for the last train at around a quarter to nine, followed by a walk across the medaeval bridge accompanied by the sight of the out-of-use steel spans of the rail bridge alongside.
There was a silver lining, mind, the line was being marketed. Also, a travel centre at Barnstaple.
Timetable booklets from that time to be found on the following site, which also carry details of 1970s ticketing options:
https://railcar.co.uk/operations/western-region/barnstaple-exeter
Mark
| Re: Almost lost - the railway to Barnstaple - from the archives Posted by Witham Bobby at 11:51, 5th September 2025 | |
My first Barnstaple - Exeter train journey (and back again later) was on a 3-car Swindon Cross-Country DMU en-route to see England play West Germany at Wembley in 1966 or early 1967
The line to Taunton had just closed, so a good chunk of time was added to the journey
It wasn't *the* 1966 fixture that always comes to mind. It was a schoolboy international, and Mr Seddon at Bideford County Secondary School decided that "his" boys should be given the chance to go. I cannot imagine how I managed to tattle the coin out of my broke parents to pay for this. But it happened. Online references to this match appear not to exist
My most vivid memory is alighting from the main line special train at Southall, for buses to The Empire Stadium. We had to wait for a platform, and once we were on the platform, a further waiting train could be seen waiting, to the rear. Interesting stuff for an 11 year old train enthusiast. This country boy was amazed by the gasworks!
First class on the way back between Exeter and Barnstaple. The train was rammed
| Re: Almost lost - the railway to Barnstaple - from the archives Posted by Mark A at 12:01, 5th September 2025 | |
Ah: the National Library of Scotland carries 1:500 mapping for Barnstaple, an 1885 survey.
Mark
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.6&lat=51.07543&lon=-4.06276&layers=117746211&b=GoogleSat&o=100
| Re: Almost lost - the railway to Barnstaple - from the archives Posted by infoman at 05:52, 6th September 2025 | |
Not sure if this might be correct that the Tiverton link road was constructed in a vain attempt to reduce passengers numbers on the Exeter to Barnstaple line.
| Re: Almost lost - the railway to Barnstaple - from the archives Posted by Mark A at 09:43, 6th September 2025 | |
Not really - the north devon link road, built at a cost of, was it £250 million, augmented the very poor quality road network between Barnstaple, Taunton, Tiverton, Exeter - well after the area had been stripped of its rail network. The link brought a deluge of vehicles to North Devon with the results we all know and love**).
Mark
** in some instances, not. It's not inappropriate to imagine the Ilfracombe branch retained at least to the large village of Braunton with a two platform terminal station at a substantial park-and-ride operation thereabouts. As it is, the transport enhancements there have all been road-based, or in the form of bus networks, and of course long distance paths. Roll on the L&B.
