Pedalling the delights of the Barnstaple branch

In my travels promoting my latest book, I found myself in Appledore on the North Devon coast a couple of weeks ago at a wonderful book festival.

I confess that when invited, I had to look up where it was, and I found that to reach the little town there was a ten-mile cycle route from Barnstaple along the Torridge - called the Tarka Trail.

So, I squeezed my bike into the worst cycle facility on the planet - the terrible little cubby holes on Great Western Railway’s Hitachi trains, which involve hanging the front wheel from a hook (not an easy task for anyone with a heavy bike, or who is less than my 6ft height).

The trip was fraught, with both a suicide and a potential suicide - an all-too-frequent and very sad event these days.

But I reached Barnstaple, on the lovely branch line from Exeter, an hour late, giving me enough time to cycle to the bridge over the river near Bideford.

The cycle route is, naturally, on the old railway. And I met the hardy campaigner Tim Steer for dinner to discuss his long-time efforts to obtain improvements on the Barnstaple line and to get the nine-mile line to Bideford reopened. After three years of campaigning, he is taking a back seat role now, but is optimistic that the dream could be realised.

The success of the Barnstaple branch, which reached more than 800,000 users (a record) last year, shows how important such rural lines can be to the local economy. Indeed, on my return, there were around 80 people waiting on the platform.

Running to Bideford would undoubtedly be a fantastic boost for the town and the area, although in these austere times, there is probably little hope of a scheme such as this being given the go-ahead, despite the excellent work of the very pro-rail Devon council supporting it.

First, though, Barnstaple needs more than an hourly service, and therefore that line requires investment, something which has the support of GWR. At least that will give Tim something to smile about.

To read Wolmar's column every fortnight, Subscribe today and never miss an issue of RAIL. With a Print + Digital subscription, you’ll get each issue delivered to your door for FREE (UK only). Plus, enjoy an exclusive monthly e-newsletter from the Editor, rewards, discounts and prizes, AND full access to the latest and previous issues via the app.