Campaigners await platform extension study verdict

Campaigners hoping to get a more frequent rail service at a station are "waiting anxiously" on the results of a survey looking into the possibility of extending the platforms.

On average currently only about 30% of the trains which pass through Ivybridge station stop there, a main factor of this being the short 104m (341ft) platforms.

Network Rail have conducted the £20,000 feasibility survey, which was funded by South Hams District Council into the possible expansion of the platforms, with the final costings being "undertaken and expect the report to be ready later this month".

GWR and Cross Country both support and welcome the proposals in a bid to improve rail services offered in the town.

The two platforms at the station are too short to accommodate Cross Country's trains, which are a minimum of about 110m (360ft) long, as well as GWR's express and longer trains.

John Pope, chair of the Ivybridge Rail Users Group - which has campaigned for more rail services in the area for 21 years, said there was "currently an irregular service" in the town which was "very frustrating".

He said the "timetables have not changed with the times - Ivybridge is now significantly bigger than it once was and the service has never reflected that".

"If the service was there, we are confident people would use it," Pope added.

Cross Country said its trains could not fit on the platform, and its "train doors cannot be opened individually" so extending the platforms could "create the opportunity to connect this part of South Devon into our network".

While GWR said it supported the "long-term ambitions for improved rail services at Ivybridge and welcome the chance to call more services there".

Conservative MP for South West Devon Rebecca Smith conducted a travel survey where 94% of respondents in Ivybridge wanted more trains to stop there with 80% more likely to use the train more often if that was the case.

Matthew Dorsett, who was catching a train, said he would use the station more often if there were "more regular services".

"It's much easier to get here than into the middle of Plymouth - if there were more trains here you would have more people travelling."

Smith said the expansion "makes so much sense" as there is "clearly a demand" for it.

She said it would increase the number of opportunities people have to use the railway as they "can't rely on the service currently offered at the station" as it was "not reliable enough".

"All the infrastructure is already here, we just need that platform extension," Smith said.

"When I've met with Network Rail they have led me to believe that they are optimistic this can be delivered."

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