Petition for rail investment handed to Parliament

A petition calling for investment in a railway line that has been closed since extreme weather damaged tracks has been presented to Parliament.

Ian Roome, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Devon, presented the petition signed by more than 3,000 people calling for action to improve the Tarka Line, which links Barnstaple with Exeter.

Problems on the line included repeated flooding and cancellations - it is currently closed "until further notice" after Storm Chandra brought heavy rain last month.

Great Western Railway (GWR) said the line was "at capacity". A Network Rail spokesperson said it had carried out £19m worth of upgrades to the line, but said there was more to be done.

Roome told MPs passengers had "suffered overcrowding and repeated service disruption due to flooding despite a record-breaking one million rail journeys".

"Following Storm Chandra all trains have been cancelled. North Devon's rail link has been shut for over a week and will not resume for several more days," he said.

"The petitioners request that the House of Commons urge the government to ask Network Rail and Great Western Railway to prioritise the Tarka Line for improvements and to work together to make rail travel in north Devon more resilient."

He urged residents affected by disruption to continue sharing their experiences to strengthen the case for investment.

"Demand for the service has continually grown and it's one of the busiest branch lines anywhere in the South West - it's a lifeline for commuters getting to work, students travelling to college, people attending appointments," he said.

North Devon Council's deputy leader Peter Leaver said the authority was working closely with operators and partners to improve reliability, but it was "increasingly clear" major investment was needed to keep up with demand and make the line more resilient in extreme weather.

"That's why this petition really matters, and we hope it builds on the case we've been making for investment."

Tim Steer, the Devon and Cornwall chairman of campaigning group Railfuture, said those relying on the line to get to work, school or health appointments were being "thrown into chaos".

"Prolonged disruption is thwarting the continued success of the line," he added.

Network Rail said upgrades over the last decade included 7.4 miles (12km) of track renewal, bridge replacements, and improvements to the drainage.

"Major flood resilience work was carried out at Cowley Junction, where we installed a flood defence barrier that can be deployed when heavy rain is expected," it said.

"Prior to the installation of the barrier, we installed large flood drains in this area to allow water to safely drain underneath the railway.

"While this has improved the resilience of the line, we know that with the increasing frequency of severe weather, there's still more to be done."

It said it was trialing new technology to monitor for potential scour damage to bridges and said more work would take place in the spring.

Great Western Railway (GWR) said capacity issues on the line tended to occur at the start of the academic year but it hoped larger Class 175 trains would provide some respite in the short term.

"Unfortunately, we can't run more trains because the branch line is at capacity, and we can't run longer trains at the moment because the platforms are not long enough, which is a really expensive solution we would need funding for," a spokesman said.

"We are however supportive of campaigns to upgrade the infrastructure of the north Devon line."

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