Hourly trains to run between Exeter and Okehampton six months after Dartmoor Line opens

Trains will run every hour between Exeter and Okehampton during the summer to meet popular demand, following the opening of the Dartmoor Line.

Network Rail is getting ready to start 15 days of engineering upgrades on the line to get it ready for the changes.

Engineers will be upgrading a 14 mile stretch of Dartmoor Line which currently carries two-hourly Great Western Railway (GWR) passenger services between the two stations.

Christian Irwin, Network Rail's industry programme director for the South West said: "These latest upgrades are critical in enabling this important railway line to increase to hourly services.

"We have been delighted with how popular the Dartmoor Line has proven to be and we now need to make some further enhancements to parts of the track in order to facilitate increased line speeds which are required to enable hourly services."

The work will take place from Monday 25 April until the early hours of Tuesday May 10. The improvements will allow trains to travel at faster speeds in time for the hourly services from mid-May.

During the work, a reduced train service will continue to operate between Exeter and Crediton but there will be a replacement bus service to get from Crediton to Okehampton.

The work will not affect trains on the Tarka Line between Exeter and Barnstaple and the two-hourly service between Exeter and Okehampton will resume from 10 May with the hourly service starting from 15 May.

Richard Burningham, Manager of the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, said: “It is incredible to think that from 15 May, not six months since the Dartmoor Line reopened, Okehampton will have trains every hour through much of the day, seven days a week".