IN A DRIVE to spread their message, campaigning group Connect Bude has just published an informative leaflet about the need to restore the railway to Holsworthy and Bude, writes Christine Williams.

Copies will be distributed around the area and at events such as Bude Farmers’ Market, the Bude Heritage Day and the Holsworthy and Stratton Show.

Studying the new leaflet and GWR timetable in Bude bus shelter, Louise Haley said: “I have three children and none of them has ever had a ride in a train. I wish the railway would come back to Bude.”

At a meeting chaired by Richard Wolfenden-Brown at the Falcon Hotel last Tuesday, June 18, the membership secretary, Mike Moore, said that with ten more people joining during the past month they now had 230 members and supporters.

Dr Michael Ireland of Okerail reported that the ‘Summer Sundays’ rail service between Okehampton and Exeter was being well patronised with people using it to travel to destinations further afield. A timetable in a frame provided by GWR was now on display at Bude in the bus shelter and a site for one was being sought at Holsworthy.

Dr Ireland also reported on a recent ‘GWR Community Rail Conference’ he had attended in Bristol. The Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, had argued the need for better use of public transport to overcome physical disconnect and reduce the use of cars.

Professor Marilyn Taylor spoke on behalf of marginalised groups and saw trains as a focal point for communities. “It is difficult to engage with thinking about the future when you are preoccupied with how to get through today,” she said.

At the previous meeting of Connect Bude on May 21, reported in the Post, members had expressed their disappointment that no mention was made of the Bude rail desert on MP Scott Mann’s website which gave details of recent funding for Bodmin and Camelford.

This had evoked a letter from the MP to Connect Bude in which he assured them that he very much supported their campaign and that the Bodmin feasibility study was the latest part of a scheme to upgrade North Cornwall’s infrastructure, which he hoped in future would include Bude-Stratton.

He said he had lobbied Ministers about getting Okehampton operational with regular services, the first stage of connecting Bude and offered a member of his constituency staff to attend a Connect Bude meeting.

It was agreed to urge Mr Mann to speak to Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling and press for a seven day a week service with a fast, comfortable connecting coach service from Bude, Holsworthy and Halwill to Okehampton station. After all, they felt trains were so much greener than cars.

Chairman Mr Wolfenden-Brown agreed to respond to the letter.