THE man whose company owns most of Britain’s railway stations has thrown doubt on ambitious plans to restore a main line across Dartmoor.

Sir Peter Hendy, chairman of Network Rail, said the cost of replacing the towering viaduct at Meldon might scupper the multi-million pound project to reopen the line between Bere Alston and Okehampton currently being considered by the Department for Transport (DfT).

But Sir Peter made it clear that he thought reopening part of the line between Tavistock and the current railhead at Bere Alston - also in front of the DfT - to reconnect West Devon’s largest town with Plymouth could actually happen.

He was speaking as Transport Secretary Grant Shapps officially reopened the recently –restored rail link between Okehampton and Exeter, which reconnects a large proportion of West Devon and its hinterland with the national network after nearly 50 years. The regular passenger service, which closed in 1972, saw trains rolling out of Okehampton once more on Saturday.

The reopening of the line as far as Okehampton has been seen by railway supporters and pressure groups as the first step in opening the entire main line, closed in 1968 between Tavistock and Okehampton in one direction and with the connection at Bere Alston to Plymouth in the other.

That feeling intensified when a massive storm in 2014 destroyed part of the London-Plymouth main line and a sizeable section of the seawall at Dawlish, cutting off Devon and Cornwall from the national rail network, which in turn led to renewed calls for an alternative rail route after millions of pounds in lost revenue literally disappeared down the drain.

But Sir Peter, when asked if the regeneration of the Okehampton section would act as an impetus for the rest of the ’northern’ route to be rebuilt, said: 'If this interview had been conducted under Meldon Viaduct (on the outskirts of Okehampton), you might wonder how much it would cost to rebuild it. It is a huge structure and it’s really not in the condition you’d want and that’s the issue.’

Devon County Council, who have repeatedly said they are committed to the scheme to reopen the Bere Alston to Tavistock section, won £50,000 from the Government to prepare a business case to do just that in the recent Budget. That, supporters of the scheme believe, was a significant step forward in what has been a long campaign to get trains back in Tavistock.

Sir Peter said there were many proposals for the restoration of railways from Cornwall to the north of Scotland and added: ’I expect this (the reopening of the Okehampton line) to be replicated throughout the country.’

He said those projects would be assessed on not just how much they would cost but also what kind of economic benefits they would bring to an area.

The Network Rail boss added: ’I suspect that there would be quite a strong case for Tavistock to Plymouth (via Bere Alston), but that there is rather less of a case of a case for Tavistock to Okehampton, partly because of the state of the Meldon Viaduct.’

Sir Peter insisted Network Rail’s extensive work on the south Devon route had made it more secure than when legendary Great Western Railway chief engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel built it around a century and a half ago.

And he did not entirely dismiss the return of the northern route in future Government-backed projects.

Asked if the repair work done at Dawlish effectively ruled out the need for the northern alternative, he said: 'Let’s see what happens in 20-30 years. It is a long game (bringing back railways) and something which is beyond my working life time.’

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was of the same mind. He said, when asked about proposals from rail group Tavistock and Okehampton Reopening Scheme (TORS) to restore the northern route: 'All the future plans have to go through several gateways, which is exactly how this (Okehampton) railway line was reopened.

’There are a lot of processes to go through, but from the point of view of knowing can it be done, the answer is yes, we’re here today and the line has been opened, so I am not ruling anything out.’