A SURVEY is being commissioned within a 20-mile radius of Okehampton to find out the demand for a central train station hub as the town waits to see if a licence will be granted to run weekday services to Exeter.

Devon and Cornwall Railway Ltd is seeking the views of residents in Hatherleigh, Tavistock, Halwill, Bude, Holsworthy and Launceston to identify whether they would use Okehampton to connect with the national railway network at Exeter St David's.

Travel and tourism consultant Dr Michael Ireland has been employed to carry out the feasibility study and will be attending parish council meetings over the next two months to give presentations on the purpose of the research.

Some 350 questionnaires were distributed in Hatherleigh as a pilot survey and the initial response was very positive towards the provision of a rail service and new parkway station at Okehampton.

It follows a survey in Okehampton where 99% of residents were in favour of a regular passenger service to Exeter being restored.

Devon and Cornwall Railway Ltd is currently waiting to see if its application to the Office or Rail Regulation for passenger and freight licences is successful.

It wants to operate four return services each weekday between Okehampton and St James' Park, Exeter, and a further two, plus one on Sundays, as far as Exeter St David's.

Dr Ireland said: 'The survey is covering quite a large area within Torridge and West Devon and a corner of North Cornwall.

'The idea is to find out people's current mode of transport and whether they would use an Okehampton Parkway station close to the A30 as a central hub to go to Exeter, Bristol and London.

'Do they currently use cars, coaches or share transport, park and ride etc to get to work, leisure facilities, airports and so on?'

Dr Ireland said he would be trying to gauge, for example, whether residents of Halwill would find it easier to drive the ten miles to Okehampton and get the train to Exeter and beyond rather than driving to Exeter and dealing with traffic jams and parking charges.

'We will be asking people what is important to them, like free parking at Okehampton Station, cost of fare, comparable journey time compared with car and bus and refreshments on board.'

'There has already been considerable support from the people of Okehampton but now we are trying to find out the level of support from a wider area.'

Devon and Cornwall Railways Ltd is a subsidiary of British American Railway Services Ltd.

The company's director of access and network operations, Mark Westerfield, said just about everyone wanted the passenger service, but the details of how often people would use it and what they would use it for were unknown.

He said:?'We need to quantify this before we can do any serious work.

'We are attempting to get a good knowledge of the transport market in this area. We can then use this research to go to the next stage.'