A rail pressure group campaigning to reinstall the Tavistock to Plymouth line took the unusual move of taking their message to the street as part of a carnival and ecofestival.

Richard Searight, leader of the newly named campaign, led a group of supporters who not only lobbied visitors to the Tavistock Ecofest, but also joined the town carnival on the same day.

He and others handed out fliers at the ecofest stall in the town centre park which urged visitors to join the campaign and to lobby Torridge and West Devon MP Geoffrey Cox for the restoration of the link which was cut by previous Governments.

They then joined the carnival at back of the procession carrying a huge banner through the streets bearing a graphic of a train, cheering and waving their arms and handing out more leaflets to on-lookers.

The Tavistock to Plymouth line is part of the route from Exeter to Plymouth, via Tavistock, which was progressively cut between the 1960s and 1970s. The Exeter to Okehampton section was restored last year. The link between Tavistock to Bere Alston is now the campaigners’ priority as the second stage.

Richard, chairman of the formerly named Peninsula Rail Group, also used the popular public event to highlight the new title ‘TaviRail’ along with a new logo. He said: ‘The carnival event was a very uplifting from a campaigning point of view. We had lots of positive conversations with people who went to enjoy themselves at the ecofest and were surprised we were there on a more serious subject.

‘People were intrigued and pleased to see us and thought our banner was fun. I think it was another way of getting our message over to people we might not reach normally in a light-hearted way which appealed to them in the context of a green-minded family day out.

‘To be honest it was really appropriate we should be at an ecofest because rail travel is an enviromentally friendly mode of travel. If people go on the trains, they aren’t in their cars, so a railway line reduces car numbers on the road with all the pollution, noise and congestion that brings.’

He said the new green and black logo reflected the railway heritage, with a rail viaduct silhouette, while the colour had environmental conotations.

The northern rail route is also seen as adding to the SW Peninsula’s transport resilience, following temporary closures of the southern coastal route to Plymouth and London due to bad weather, especially the loss of the vulnerable seawall at Dawlish.

Mr Searight is optimistic the backing of the region’s MPs will help their case for the Tavistock to Bere Alston section to be relaid. Funding has already been secured towards the business case: ‘There’s political momentum in our favour, but we need the public to lobby their MPs to make sure they know it’s what the people want.’