AS Okehampton celebrated the imminent reopening of its railway with a look back into the past last weekend, railway supporters just up the road were asking: ‘What’s happening with ours?’

A leading railway supporter admitted he is concerned over a delay in a Government announcement over a bid to restore the Tavistock to Bere Alston railway line.

Peninsula rail group chairman Richard Searight, who has campaigned to bring the line back of the line for years, said restoring the route was a critical part of restoring the former main line across Dartmoor from Exeter to Plymouth.

Mr Searight is backing Devon County Council moves to win funding from the Department for Transport towards getting trains back to Tavistock for the first time since 1968.

Supporters of the line’s restoration were hoping to hear by the end of this summer whether the funding bid had been successful. But it is understood the announcement may not now be made until December.

Mr Searight said he was ‘absolutely concerned’ that the announcement had been delayed and added it was important that supporters from various railway groups continued to campaign for the line’s restoration with one voice.

Concerns over the announcement’s delay came as Okehampton residents celebrated the 150th anniversary since the railway arrived in the town.

Although the route to Exeter was closed to passengers in 1971, the Government pumped £10 million into reopening the line under their scheme to restore communities’ railways across the UK. The line is scheduled to reopen following extensive work by Network Rail to bring it up to modern safety standards within the next three months.

Mr Searight is also supporting a separate proposal by the Tavistock and Okehampton Reopening Scheme (TORS) group which is aiming to bring back the entire route from Exeter to Plymouth, which would effectively link all of West Devon to the national rail network, bringing with it hard cash in the shape of tourism, freight and new industry.

The thinking is that the Okehampton reopening would be phase one of a project which would then see the railhead at Bere Alston, which connects with Plymouth, extended to Tavistock along basically its former route. The third phase would see Tavistock reunited with Okehampton by rail for the first time in more than 50 years.

The Peninsula Rail Group chairman said: ‘I am absolutely concerned about the delay in the announcement. We have to stay focused on the great vision (of the restoration of the entire line), with everybody singing from the same hymn sheet.’