Rail Connections to London: Rural Towns

Richard Foord Excerpts

Monday 23rd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for Shrewsbury (Julia Buckley) for securing the debate and for enabling me to speak in it.

I would like to welcome once again the news announced at the spending review last June that funding has been allocated to reinstate the railway station at Cullompton. I was pleased to hear that reaffirmed recently in the Railways Public Bill Committee by the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the hon. Member for Selby (Keir Mather), who is in his place ready to wind up this debate.

Cullompton and Wellington are the two largest settlements on the line between Exeter and Taunton, so it is right that those towns should be afforded the means to enable the people who live there to walk or cycle to stations, giving them access to London via Paddington. A station at Cullompton will be key to its economic growth, enabling connections for work and education. I am glad the Government recognised that case.

Today, I want to bring to the Minister’s attention the needs of the people of east Devon on the west of England line, which connects Honiton, Feniton and Axminster. Across south-west railways, 82% of trains arrived at their destinations within three minutes of their advertised time, but on the west of England line it was just 61%. Instead of the usual “leaves on the line” explanation, last autumn the culprit was “soil moisture deficit”.

Robert Glen is a professor at Imperial College London who commutes from Honiton. He compares his experience of the west of England line with his experience in Hokkaido in Japan, where he sometimes works. Like Honiton, Hokkaido is also not very populated and far from the capital, but there he travels at 190 mph. We are not asking for the Devon Shinkansen—bullet train—even at HS2 speeds; we just want a route that connects Devon to London Waterloo at the same standard enjoyed by the rest of the country.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman would spare a thought for those even further south-west—nearly 1 million people in Plymouth and Cornwall struggle when there is a storm that affects their one line in and out of Cornwall. Would the Minister consider Great British Railways, when it is set up, having recourse to look at transport strategies for local authorities in places like Cornwall, which have such good transport plans, to make that a thing of the past?

[Richard Foord]

The hon. Lady makes an excellent point. I recognise wholly the vulnerability of the line at Dawlish, which my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley) has also been campaigning on. I am sure that together, Devon and Cornwall MPs can keep up the fight.

To conclude, reliable rail links are essential in keeping Devon connected and competitive with a convenient and clean form of transport that is fit for passengers.