A POSTER with details of summer Sunday rail services between Okehampton and Exeter has recently taken its place in Bude bus shelter alongside local bus timetables (pictured left), writes Christine Williams.

It recently caught the eye of one lady from Southend-on-Sea who regularly travels to Bude to visit her mother. Having heard that before long it was hoped there would be a regular daily service of trains between Okehampton and Exeter with coach connections to and from Bude, she said it could not come soon enough for her as it had taken her four hours from Southend to Exeter and four hours from Exeter to Bude.

At a meeting of Connect Bude on August 21, treasurer Mike Moore displayed the timetables and suggested they produce some posters with ‘The Famous Five’ theme that GWR were currently using in their publicity with the aim of sparking people‘s love for rail travel. He said they now had a total of 181 members and supporters and chairman Richard Wolfenden-Brown issued a challenge to each existing member of Connect Bude to recruit another member in time for the annual meeting, which is likely to be on Saturday, October 27. Recent membership drives had been affected by inclement weather but there would be a presence at Bude Lifeboat Day.

Dr Michael Ireland of Okerail gave the encouraging news that there had been an increasing number of passengers on the Sunday train service from Okehampton to Exeter — 140 on the 9.55am train and 95 on the 12.12pm — many of them catching onward trains to other destinations and to airports. Similarly the previous Sunday down trains were the busiest ever seen. He suggested they distribute promotional GWR colouring books and posters free of charge. He said the time had come for Connect Bude to plan a fast, efficient and comfortable coach service between Bude, Holsworthy and Okehampton station in readiness for the daily train service which it was hoped would be running in early 2020.