Spring has sprung, and with each passing day the views from the train window just get better. To encourage Devon passengers to sample the springtime countryside, local rail users’ group, the Tarka Rail Association, in partnership with First Great Western, have come up with a novel idea: a walks booklet to encourage travellers on the Exeter - Barnstaple “Tarka Line” to explore the landscape on the other side of the window.
   Tarka Line Walks is a 52-page full-colour booklet featuring 22 self-guided walks from each of the eleven wayside stations along the 39 mile route. “The line passes through some of the finest scenery in Southern England,” notes Julian Crow, FGW General Manager for the West of England. “With this booklet we hope to introduce both locals and visitors to the countryside made famous in Henry Williamson’s Tarka the Otter, and with the new hourly timetable that is now operating -- the best service the line has ever had -- planning of walks is now so much easier.”
   The walks vary in length from just over three to just over seven miles. Many are ideal for children. All are accompanied by easy-to-follow maps and list pubs, shops and tearooms along the route. “You’ve no idea just what’s out there until you head away from the track,” confides Peter Craske, who spent months researching the walks and going over the ground with a motley collection of middle-aged dogs. He has been riding the line since the 1940s and promises his readers “just about everything from picturesque villages to ancient watermills, from long-forgotten mines to murder sites (two!).”
   Craske is quick to stress the health and environmental implications of the project. “In these days of dire predictions about rising obesity rates and associated health problems, walking can do wonders for middle age spread (and doubtless other spreads!),” he observes. “And taking the train, instead of the car, is gentle on the environment. This way you’ll barely leave a carbon footprint.”
   Tarka Line Walks is produced by the Tarka Rail Association (TRA), in conjunction with FGW, Devon County Council , the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership (D&CRP), Passenger Focus and other major stakeholders. In fact so many sponsors have lined up behind the project that there’s a major dividend for readers: the walks booklet is free.
   “Strictly speaking, we’re not quite the first to come up with this idea,” confesses TRA chairman, John Phillips. “Back in the years between the World Wars, when the line was managed by Southern Railway, the company published several booklets with much the same objective. But there’s a big difference. Theirs cost 6d -- closer to £2 in today’s money -- ours are to be had for the asking!”
   And it’s easy to ask. To order your free Tarka Line Walks booklet, (or to have a copy sent to a friend as a thoughtful gift):

* Telephone: (01752) 233094
* E-mail: railpart@plymouth.ac.uk* or write to: Devon & Cornwall Rail

Partnership, School

of Geography, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, PL4 8AA.

Remember to specify Tarka Line Walks and be sure to supply your name, address and postal code.


CONTACTS:

JOHN PHILLIPS: Chairman, Tarka Rail Association. (01363) 84221
j.phillips142@btinternet.com


PETER CRASKE: Tarka Rail Walks, Author. (01837) 849071
pcbcraske@yahoo.com