Dartmoor Line

Okehampton Interchange, the newest station on the Dartmoor Line, is now open. It brings even more people onto the railway, connecting West Devon and North Cornwall with Exeter and beyond

Okehampton Interchange is a new purpose-built station, just two minutes from the A30. It’s been built to serve the growing east side of Okehampton and helps people travel more sustainably. The new station complements the existing Okehampton station, which remains open as the end of the branch line from Exeter.

With a 200-space car park, Okehampton Interchange will reduce traffic through Okehampton town centre and link with local buses, cycling and walking routes.

It took Network Rail a year to build the new station. The first major stage of work saw 300 metres of the single-line track moved 90cm north. The project team removed earth from behind the existing wall to make space for a new platform alongside it. They then drove 25 bored piles 12 metres into the ground and laid 107 coping stones to support the 100-metre platform. A 350-tonne crane positioned the lift shaft, footbridge and staircase. Following the main construction work, the team built the car park and station forecourt.

Ecology

We’ve planted thousands of native trees and shrubs at several sites around Okehampton. This has created new habitats for rare hazel dormice. They’re classified as vulnerable in the wild and move around, nest, feed and breed above ground. Hazel, hawthorn, oak, silver birch, mountain ash and honeysuckle, all native to Great Britain, are among the trees and shrubs planted.

We’ve worked with Natural England to enhance the local environment. We’ve not built public parks. But have created a natural environment that will mature over the coming years. It will allow native species to thrive and improve the biodiversity of the area. All the sites are privately owned and there’s no public right of way through them.

Reopening Okehampton station

The project follows the successful reopening of Okehampton station in 2021. Network Rail laid 11 miles of new track, replaced 24,000 sleepers and installed 29,000 tonnes of ballast.

The work allowed passenger trains to run again between Okehampton and Exeter for the first time in over half a century. This has attracted over half a million passengers in the first two years.

The future

The long-term ambition is for a railway line that runs beyond Okehampton into Cornwall. It would run roughly along the route of the A30, to rejoin the Cornish Mainline at Bodmin. The project is in the concept stage with no confirmed plans or funding.