Put freight back on Tarka Line?

A report being published today (Wednesday) advocates the return of rail freight services to North Devon after an absence of more than two decades. An environmental impact study, commissioned by the North Devon Rail Users Group, calculates that bringing g

A report being published today (Wednesday) advocates the return of rail freight services to North Devon after an absence of more than two decades.An environmental impact study, commissioned by the North Devon Rail Users' Group, calculates that bringing goods into the area via the Tarka Line would reduce CO2 emissions by seven times compared with using road transport.It also examines CO2 emissions for a number of travel itineraries using different modes of transport from Barnstaple to various other UK destinations - and train travel wins every time.The study, thought to be the first of its kind commissioned by a local rail users' group, will be sent to North Devon Council tomorrow in support of the group's representations on the redevelopment of the Brian Ford's supermarket site at Seven Brethren Bank, Barnstaple.The site, next to the Tarka Line and Barnstaple Station, is earmarked for a new supermarket for Tesco, which has bought Brian Ford's..The rail users' group wants to encourage Tesco to bring in some of its goods by rail."We noticed that Tesco uses trains to deliver certain goods to parts of Scotland, particularly rural parts, and feel the company should be encouraged to bring some of their goods to North Devon by rail," said John Phillips, chairman of the North Devon Rail Users' Group.Mr Phillips said that goods were last brought into Barnstaple by rail in the early 1980s and that there was still space on the station site for a small depot."There are already a couple of railway engineering sidings alongside the line and space for a small freight rail head," he said."The depot would be something that could serve not only Tesco, but the wider North Devon area, too."It really doesn't need to be massive; just a small area for loading and unloading containers."We have already submitted our representations to the council on the plans and will now be sending a copy of the new environmental impact study to support those representations."The report, carried out by Bideford-based environmental business support programme Envision, will be officially published to North Devon Rail Users' Group members at the group's annual meeting, starting at 6.45pm at Barnstaple Library today.News of the study follows a recent announcement that two extra trains a day will run on the Tarka Line from mid-December."This will be the first AGM for some time that we have had something to celebrate," said Mr Phillips."We have campaigned for an hourly service for many years and this is an important milestone."It has been brought about partly as a result of survey work and lobbying by the Users' Groups, and partly because of ever increasing numbers of passengers. We congratulate and thank Devon County Council and First Great Western," he added._ Should goods be brought to North Devon by Rail? Take part in our web poll.