A WOULD-BE bus operator has unveiled ambitious plans to create a new service for traffic-choked Okehampton which will aim to get vehicles off the road and provide a link with the town’s soon to be reopened rail service.

Former Stagecoach employee Richard May told Okehampton town councillors that he intended to start a service which would provide a bus for every train which pulled into the revamped railway station, which is set to reopen before the end of the year.

Mr May, who has lived in Okehampton for 20 years, told the council that he intended to create a service which would make the town proud.

In asking for the council’s support, he said he was aiming to build a service which would serve the town’s schools, its college, Okehampton’s hospital and the rail service.

Mr May said his new operation would be similar to the town’s bus service of 10-12 years ago, and added: ‘I could just do it, but I want to tie it in with the community.’

He said he was in talks with Devon County Council about setting up his operation and was in the process of ‘sorting out’ his operator’s licence.

Mr May, originally from Lincolnshire, said he hoped the get everything he need to do before the town’s rail connection with Exeter, initially set to run every two hours, reopened, although he admitted the timing of that would be ‘tight’.

He told town councillors that his buses would run a seven-day a week service to the station and would tie into a provisional rail timetable for Okehampton announced by line operators GWR.

That would mean buses would be available for rail passengers during the ‘weekday’ service which started at 7.20am and finished at around 10.20pm. On Sundays, they would operate in conjunction with trains which ran from 9.20am to 10pm.

Mr May said he planned to use former London Transport buses which would allow access for disabled passengers or families with push bikes who arrived in Okehampton via train.

He added: ‘It’s safety for the community as well. If a child wanted to get on a bus from the railway station at 10pm, I would want them to get home safely. It’s a bus service for the town.’

In answer to questions from councillors, Mr May said that he wanted to establish the service in the town first, then look at expanding outward to places such as South Zeal and Hatherleigh.

His plan received overwhelming support from councillors. Cllr Jan Goffey said: ‘I think you are the answer to the town council’s prayers for many years.’

After the meeting, Mr May said that his vehicles would be ‘plodding’ around the town at low speeds, rather than dashing from destination to destination and added that he wanted to see the service help to take traffic out of the town.

He said: ‘Traffic is a problem and it has been getting worse. This is something I have been thinking of doing for a long time and I decided I wanted to do it now.’

The plan was unveiled as Okehampton celebrate the 150th anniversary of the railway arriving in the town this weekend with a series of events. The railway opened in 1871 and closed to passengers — apparently for good — in 1971, although the line remained open for freight traffic until earlier this century.

Rail supporters are hoping a second station, the so-called Okehampton Parkway, will open to the east of the town for traffic and passengers from the A30 and North Cornwall.

Devon County Council applied for Government funding for the project, but have yet to be told whether there bid will has been successful.

County councillor Lois Samuel told the town council: ‘Hopefully, we are going to get funding and hopefully we will know soon.’

Network Rail is asking people to avoid attempting to access the Dartmoor Line as the number of trains travelling on it increases.

They said work to reopen the line by the end of the year is ‘continuing to progress well with this latest phase of work involving trains travelling the 14 mile stretch of railway to test out the newly-laid track’.