A MEETING of Connect Bude, chaired by Richard Wolfenden-Brown, at the Falcon Hotel on Tuesday, April 24, reflected on the recent Royal Oke rail excursion to Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon and agreed it had been a great success, writes Christine Williams.

There was a high level of service on board and the train had run on time. Later in the year there will be two more similar trips, one up the Severn Valley to Bridgnorth and another to London and there was discussion on how improvements could be made.

Dr Michael Ireland of Okerail said they were fortunate to have a partnership with GWR and efforts made by the company to get coach stock were appreciated but it meant that it had not been possible for seat booking to start until two weeks before travel.

As a consequence the train had been just 60% full. It was thought that more passengers would have been attracted if there had been earlier booking and in future a booking window of at least four weeks would be desirable.

Some people were put off by the very early departure time and some had found the online booking and the allocation of seats to certain coaches confusing.

The answers to a questionnaire circulated among passengers on the train regarding future destinations and how much people were prepared to pay were being analysed.

Membership secretary Mike Moore said Connect Bude now had 72 members and 53 supporters, a total of 125. A leaflet was being prepared to distribute widely in the area and a membership welcome pack was suggested.

The meeting ended with a discussion of the strategy needed to achieve the aims of building up a mass organisation to impress the powers that be of the need for connecting the area to a railway service.

They should look into a feasibility study of a rail link to Holsworthy and should encourage other communities such as Holsworthy and Halwill to set up support groups as well as linking up with the Peninsula Rail Group at Tavistock.

Jonathan McConnell said they should stress the green agenda of the project whereby it was good for the environment for people to use public transport rather than to travel by car.

A decent direct bus service from local communities with good connections to the train service at Okehampton and integrated ticketing were needed.

The meeting was told that Rumpus Media, a broadcasting and media production company based in London, was making a film about closed railway lines and had been in touch with Okerail. They might consider North Cornwall and were keen to get young people involved as presenters.