THE chairman of a group trying to get trains back to Tavistock has urged supporters to focus on that project and leave plans to restore Dartmoor’s ‘northern route’ for another day.

Richard Searight, chairman of the Peninsula Rail Group, made it clear that, long-term, the restoration of the Plymouth to Exeter rail link via Tavistock was very much still on the agenda.

But he said the priority must be to get trains running to Tavistock from Bere Alston, where the line still runs to Plymouth.

Supporters believe they are on the verge of getting Government backing to rebuild the route to Bere Alston. Devon County Council transport officials are putting together a business case for the scheme which is expected to go before the Department for Transport this summer.

They have already received £50,000 towards the business case, which they believe has helped them move up the priority list for the restoration of railways in the UK.

The Peninsula Rail Group held a meeting at Tavistock’s Bedford Hotel to tell residents how far their campaign to get a station back into the town had progressed.

The packed-out meeting produced a host of questions from the audience over whether the entire route, progressively closed from the late 1960s until Okehampton lost its service in the early 1970s, could be brought back in the future.

Mr Searight told the meeting that the collapse of the seawall at Dawlish more than seven years ago during a violent storm had cost the region millions of pounds after the ‘southern’ route to Plymouth was severed from the national rail network while the damage was repaired.

Mr Searight agree that Tavistock could become the second phase of restoring the northern route — Okehampton has already been reopened.

But he added: ‘What we need to do now is focus on what is going to be done. We are going to focus on Tavistock.

‘The next thing is the next thing and at the moment we are doing Tavistock.’