The Bideford rail link is already being built

You can’t yet see a tangible railway line between Bideford and Barnstaple, however, the building work has already started – building the case for it. 

Nobody can say where the station(s) or coastal alignment will be located, as this requires further case-making known formally as HM Treasury’s five-case model, following the Department for Transport’s Transport Appraisal Guidance for business cases – the strategic, economic, commercial, financial, and management cases. 

Achievement of project requires adherence to process, and the Department for Transport’s March 2018 industry-agreed Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline is that process. It has five Decision points, each preceding one of five stages, the first three of which progress to a different level of business case: Strategic Outline Business Case, Outline Business Case, Full Business Case.

In 2024, Railfuture commissioned SLC Rail to undertake an Economic Appraisal with Engineering Feasibility, with Torridge District Council funding support following inclusion of assessing the feasibility of a link in their Strategic Plan.  SLC’s study demonstrated that with the local housing growth targets around the Greater Bideford area (East the Water, Appledore, Bideford, Northam, and Westward Ho!) 83 per cent of Bideford station users would be ‘new to rail.’  

Torridge is now the only Devon district without a railway station. Communities closer to Okehampton in the adjacent West Devon district will soon be using a second station - ‘Okehampton Interchange.’  District authorities have limited time before they become a new unitary authority, and Devon County Council who developed the new Local Transport Plan (LTP4) will no longer be the statutory transport authority after 31st March.  Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority adopted Local Transport Plan 4, 2025-40, and replace DCC from 1st April.  

LTP-4 states “working in partnership with the rail industry and local groups, we will support ongoing feasibility work for the potential extension of the North Devon Line to Bideford.”  Peninsula Transport also included the extension from Barnstaple to Bideford in its Strategic Implementation Plan 2025-50 under “Long Term Strategic Schemes. 

Having the statutory transport and strategic authorities showing the Bideford rail link in their official plans gave the Northern Devon Railway Development Alliance a green signal to produce a Preliminary Strategic Business Case (PSBC) for Bideford: “A new train service connecting Bideford with Exeter and beyond.” 

One extraordinary finding in the PSBC / SLC work is “A substantial level of usage of Bideford station is likely: lower than Barnstaple, but higher than Okehampton - placing it 1,000th out of c.2,960 stations nationally.”  This challenges the concern that Bideford would be little-used, instead bringing evidence that it will be one of the top used stations in the country!

The PSBC Executive Summary also states “Retention and improvement of the Tarka Trail as a central, integral feature of the scheme.”  This settles the fear that a Bideford railway will ruin the 9-miles of Tarka Trail between Bideford and Barnstaple.