Newton Abbot to Heathfield Railway Revival Group propose reopening Heathfield line (Update thread)

I came across this thread a while ago when I was searching for something else: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...oup-propose-reopening-heathfield-line.148974/. I did some digging around and I found some news stories from the late 20teens to the early 2020s and the plan seemed to be commuter/passenger services Monday to Friday and Heritage trains at weekends, sadly going back now to the news stories most of the links are dead. I also found a website that had the usual Who we are, History of the line, Contact us, etc but when you clicked on anything all you got was blank pages.

I have been keeping an eye on the website "just in case" and a while ago it was updated to a shiny new one but I did not bother to post as a shiny website means nothing.

Introducing the New Heathfield Rail Link Website! | Heathfield Rail Link Association​

heathfieldrail.org

Introducing the New Heathfield Rail Link Website!
by HRLA | Sep 26, 2025 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the freshly built Heathfield Rail Link Association website: heathfieldrail.org. This marks a major step forward in making our vision, updates, and community engagement more accessible and dynamic.

Built by Falcon Digital under Their National Charity & Community Scheme​

This website is much more than a digital address — it’s the result of a meaningful collaboration. The build was handled by Falcon Digital, through their national Charity & Community Scheme, enabling non-profits and community initiatives like ours to gain modern, responsive websites without bearing the full cost themselves.

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Visiting the website recently there are a couple of news stories and it appears they have been quietly getting on with things, with the latest being they are in negotiation with Network Rail (NR) to work on Teigngrace station and according to their website they have already been working on the bay platform at Newton Abbott for a while so I assume NR will give them their blessing.

We’re Not Hanging Around…! | Heathfield Rail Link Association​

heathfieldrail.org

We’re Not Hanging Around…!​

by HRLA | Jun 30, 2026 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Unlike last year’s flood damage to a small section of the line between Newton Abbot and Teigngrace crossing, we continue to move forward positively after a recent successful meeting with Network Rail and Railfuture.
We have been in discussions to obtain a Community Order Licence to gain access to Teigngrace Halt, which will allow us to start some clearance work. We look forward to working more closely with NR in the future!

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There doesn't seen to be any mention of heritage rail on both the old website and this one its all about commuter trains which I am very supportive of:

About us | Heathfield Rail Link Association​

heathfieldrail.org

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We are a community group of volunteers since 2017, working to promote the re-opening of the railway line from Newton Abbot to Heathfield in Devon.

Originally part of the Teign Valley railway line, we believe that the re-opening of the remaining five miles of track to Heathfield will be a valuable asset, easing local transport pressures within the region.

This green environmentally-friendly transport corridor will help the local economy by providing a regular commuter service for the busy town of Newton Abbot.

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But if they are still planning it then as we we'll know heritage railways are facing a lot of issues, particularly any new start ups but if things come together then they could potentially catapult themselves forward for penny's:



Stations - Newton Abbott is ready to go and looking at Google maps both Teigngrace and Heathfield station platforms seem relatively intact so they could use a couple of porter cabins as temporary station buildings and you immediately have three stations ready to go including a crucial NR platform connection.



Track - Up until recently the line was being used for freight, so beside a short section that was washed away in a flood, which is now being repaired. It should be good to go for a light railway order and while in the long term the track might need to be upgraded to at least 40mph, as a start, to see if there is a demand for a commuter rail service 25mph should be satisfactory.



Signalling - While the line runs in to Newton Abbott it comes in on a separate branch and in to the bay platform so as long as they do "one engine in steam", it should mean no need for any signalling.



Locomotive(s)/Carriages etc - While getting hold of a heritage diesel/DMU/Pacer and looking after it should not be a major problem, getting hold of a steam engine and maintaining it particularly at the start could be. So to start things off, I am assuming that the engines and coaches on the Paignton and Dartmouth steam railway (DSR) are NR compliant? as they are running in to Paignton station which is NR owned. So what could happen is Heathfield railway rent a steam engine and rake of coaches from the DSR, and in the morning a steam engine and a rake of empty coaches run from the DSR on to the NR tracks to Newton Abbott then on to the Heathfield branch they then spend the day running up a down then head back to Paignton at the end of the day.



Workshops/storage - Right next door to Heathfield station is a large industrial estate so there's bound to be at least one warehouse that they could rent/buy for workshop/storage.



Future extensions - Just North of Heathfield station the track peters out but just North of that there is a big oblong shaped industrial estate that looks like it was built right up to the old track beds boundary so they could run to the East side of that and then go a bit further and put a terminus at the roundabout at the Southern end of Bovey Tracey here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/oQfJN4KzXkz4xwRn7.

They also could rebuild a small bit of the Teign valley line running from Heathfield station to the South of Chudleigh Knighton but sadly no further as the A38 has taken the track bed, perhaps as a narrow gauge railway for those volunteer's who don't want to play with full size trains.



Volunteer's - While a lot of railway's are struggling for volunteers this one could attract a lot right from the start because unlike a lot of start up railway's where it can be at least ten/twenty years from starting up to at least running a diesel industrial shunter and a brake van up and down this has the potential to be up and running in a couple of years.



Other attractions - They are already working with the Stover canal restoration people: https://stovercanal.co.uk/ so when the canal is restored I am assuming the canal people might want to run boat trips so they could work together and offer joint ticket's which gets you both a train ride and a canal boat trip also it would be a pleasant day out to get a train from Newton Abbott to Heathfield/Bovey and then walk back along the canal.

I've always thought that the branch could be used to introduce a summer weekend Dartmoor service too. However, I think an extension westwards to Bovey Tracey would be needed to make this useful.

In the Riviera line enhancement thread I made this proposition about this branch:

brad465 said:

One thing I would like to see, though flooding damage has made this far more costly, is reinstating the Heathfield branch to passenger service. The main aim would be a parkway station at Heathfield that not only serves here and Bovey Tracey, but provides through services to Paignton, which could encourage fewer cars to travel directly into Torbay itself. The station and line would also be a good railhead for whenever the sea wall is closed, with RRBs going here to link up with Paignton trains (although for Plymouth the bus would still be better off carrying on to there).

I would seek an hourly frequency minimum, increasing to 2tph during high tourist season, but this would also require Newton Abbot-Paignton upgrades if all the existing services are retained on top.

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overthere 2 said:

I came across this thread a while ago when I was searching for something else: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...oup-propose-reopening-heathfield-line.148974/. I did some digging around and I found some news stories from the late 20teens to the early 2020s and the plan seemed to be commuter/passenger services Monday to Friday and Heritage trains at weekends, sadly going back now to the news stories most of the links are dead. I also found a website that had the usual Who we are, History of the line, Contact us, etc but when you clicked on anything all you got was blank pages.

I have been keeping an eye on the website "just in case" and a while ago it was updated to a shiny new one but I did not bother to post as a shiny website means nothing.

But if they are still planning it then as we we'll know heritage railways are facing a lot of issues, particularly any new start ups but if things come together then they could potentially catapult themselves forward for penny's:

Stations - Newton Abbott is ready to go and looking at Google maps both Teigngrace and Heathfield station platforms seem relatively intact so they could use a couple of porter cabins as temporary station buildings and you immediately have three stations ready to go including a crucial NR platform connection.

Track - Up until recently the line was being used for freight, so beside a short section that was washed away in a flood, which is now being repaired. It should be good to go for a light railway order and while in the long term the track might need to be upgraded to at least 40mph, as a start, to see if there is a demand for a commuter rail service 25mph should be satisfactory.

Signalling - While the line runs in to Newton Abbott it comes in on a separate branch and in to the bay platform so as long as they do "one engine in steam", it should mean no need for any signalling.

Locomotive(s)/Carriages etc - While getting hold of a heritage diesel/DMU/Pacer and looking after it should not be a major problem, getting hold of a steam engine and maintaining it particularly at the start could be. So to start things off, I am assuming that the engines and coaches on the Paignton and Dartmouth steam railway (DSR) are NR compliant? as they are running in to Paignton station which is NR owned. So what could happen is Heathfield railway rent a steam engine and rake of coaches from the DSR, and in the morning a steam engine and a rake of empty coaches run from the DSR on to the NR tracks to Newton Abbott then on to the Heathfield branch they then spend the day running up a down then head back to Paignton at the end of the day.

Workshops/storage - Right next door to Heathfield station is a large industrial estate so there's bound to be at least one warehouse that they could rent/buy for workshop/storage.

Future extensions - Just North of Heathfield station the track peters out but just North of that there is a big oblong shaped industrial estate that looks like it was built right up to the old track beds boundary so they could run to the East side of that and then go a bit further and put a terminus at the roundabout at the Southern end of Bovey Tracey here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/oQfJN4KzXkz4xwRn7.

They also could rebuild a small bit of the Teign valley line running from Heathfield station to the South of Chudleigh Knighton but sadly no further as the A38 has taken the track bed, perhaps as a narrow gauge railway for those volunteer's who don't want to play with full size trains.

Volunteer's - While a lot of railway's are struggling for volunteers this one could attract a lot right from the start because unlike a lot of start up railway's where it can be at least ten/twenty years from starting up to at least running a diesel industrial shunter and a brake van up and down this has the potential to be up and running in a couple of years.

Other attractions - They are already working with the Stover canal restoration people: https://stovercanal.co.uk/ so when the canal is restored I am assuming the canal people might want to run boat trips so they could work together and offer joint ticket's which gets you both a train ride and a canal boat trip also it would be a pleasant day out to get a train from Newton Abbott to Heathfield/Bovey and then walk back along the canal.

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Thank you for finding this, but it all seems rather improbable.

Commuters - the population of Heathfield is c.1500, Teigngrace 300. Does that point to a market for commuting to Newton Abbot?
Stations - Ownership? Access?
Track - Given people can drive from Heathfield to Newton Abbot on the A382, presumably at rather higher speed, I doubt a 25mph railway would attract commuters.
Signalling - I doubt it would be that simple. It rarely is.
Locomotives/carriages - The cost of hiring and moving rolling stock from Paignton would - I suspect - be eye-watering, even assuming that the DSR would be willing to hire out to a competitor.
Workshops/Storage - still needs to be paid for (if available) and connected if it's to service rolling stock.
Future extensions - seem even less practical than just to Heathfield!
Volunteers - a rather limited catchment area I would have thought. My impression is that the volunteer pool is getting older and smaller.

Given how many heritage railways are already struggling (both economically and in terms of attracting volunteers) I really don't see good prospects for new ventures.

6Gman said:

Thank you for finding this, but it all seems rather improbable.

Commuters - the population of Heathfield is c.1500, Teigngrace 300. Does that point to a market for commuting to Newton Abbot?
Stations - Ownership? Access?
Track - Given people can drive from Heathfield to Newton Abbot on the A382, presumably at rather higher speed, I doubt a 25mph railway would attract commuters.
Signalling - I doubt it would be that simple. It rarely is.
Locomotives/carriages - The cost of hiring and moving rolling stock from Paignton would - I suspect - be eye-watering, even assuming that the DSR would be willing to hire out to a competitor.
Workshops/Storage - still needs to be paid for (if available) and connected if it's to service rolling stock.
Future extensions - seem even less practical than just to Heathfield!
Volunteers - a rather limited catchment area I would have thought. My impression is that the volunteer pool is getting older and smaller.

Given how many heritage railways are already struggling (both economically and in terms of attracting volunteers) I really don't see good prospects for new ventures.

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My thoughts are similar to yours, but I would add that with the way that the formation appears to have been used for roads beyond Heathfield, the difficulties of extending it even as far as Bovey would appear to be insuperable. Furthermore, a fair bit of the existing route appears to run through industrial estates or similar, something that is hardly likely to entice trippers.

I fully agree with your final point and have been ranting on about it for some time. The pool of volunteers who remember steam is rapidly diminishing as they wind down, become too weak or just die, while their younger replacements are not coming in at a sufficient rate to keep up the numbers. And the passengers who are travelling on a nostalgia jag are also dying, leaving the lines more and more reliant on those who have plenty of other equally enticing things to do. We need to concentrate on a relatively small number of established and solid lines, but everybody wants their own line, even if it only has a small industrial tank shuttling a couple of Mark 1s and a brake van half a mile ten times a year.

I don’t really see the future of this branch as a heritage line. The volunteers are just not around like they used to be.
Teigngrace station is not in that great condition. Whilst the platform coping stones and ramps are there, the platform itself is in terrible condition as is the access path.
As the photo shows, both platforms at Heathfield exist but the down platform is severely overgrown whist on the upside the tarmac surface is badly pitted and again overgrown. The last train that called there the passengers were (frustratingly) not allowed to alight due to this. Both will need extensive work.
If you are suggesting using platform 9 at Newton Abbot then that is not really that good to go. Again the surface isn’t that great and the point into it is a handpoint so will need to be changed and controlled. It would actually make more sense to alter the trap onto the mainline and run into the remains of platform 4. Even so the signalling will still need bringing up to passenger standards.
Teignbridge crossing will need replacing with barriers.
Going towards Chudleigh would require reinstating the level crossing just after Heathfield and would really serve little purpose.
I’m also lead to believe that the line has been recognised as a potential freight hub due to its proximity to the A38. What freight this would be is a mystery.
I’m not against any reopening of this line but unlike Okehampton is the business case really there?

overthere 2 said:

Track - Up until recently the line was being used for freight, so beside a short section that was washed away in a flood, which is now being repaired. It should be good to go for a light railway order

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There is no longer any such thing as a LRO, you'd need to submit a TWAO order now.

overthere 2 said:

and while in the long term the track might need to be upgraded to at least 40mph, as a start, to see if there is a demand for a commuter rail service 25mph should be satisfactory.

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25mph is not going to show you whether there is demand for a commuter rail service if it's competing with a road that's allowed to do any more than 30mph.

overthere 2 said:

Signalling - While the line runs in to Newton Abbott it comes in on a separate branch and in to the bay platform so as long as they do "one engine in steam", it should mean no need for any signalling.

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If it remains a wholly separate operation on wholly separate infrastructure and is exempted from the RSR1999 maybe. Otherwise it'll need TWPS fitting for the buffer stops at the very least. Which means fitting TPWS to the locos. If a connection to the mainline is maintained then the junction will need to be signalled. The branch itself would probably only need fairly minimal signalling, but it does depend on if the service is subject to the regulations requiring a train protection system.

overthere 2 said:

Locomotive(s)/Carriages etc - While getting hold of a heritage diesel/DMU/Pacer and looking after it should not be a major problem, getting hold of a steam engine and maintaining it particularly at the start could be. So to start things off, I am assuming that the engines and coaches on the Paignton and Dartmouth steam railway (DSR) are NR compliant? as they are running in to Paignton station which is NR owned. So what could happen is Heathfield railway rent a steam engine and rake of coaches from the DSR, and in the morning a steam engine and a rake of empty coaches run from the DSR on to the NR tracks to Newton Abbott then on to the Heathfield branch they then spend the day running up a down then head back to Paignton at the end of the day.

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The DSR runs into it's own station, so it does not have to be compliant with NR standards. AFAIK the DSR have no mainline-registered steam, although I'm quite possibly wrong on that as it's been over 5 years since I was last involved in steam trains running between NR and DSR.
Mainline-compatible stock nowadays needs TPWS, AWS, an On-Train Data Recorder, GSM-R, and Central Door Locking (as well as meeting crashworthiness standards - wooden-bodied stock is very very rare to get approved nowadays). The DSR might have a mainline-registered loco, but I suspect it won't have fitted GSM-R to a DMU.

overthere 2 said:

Volunteer's - While a lot of railway's are struggling for volunteers this one could attract a lot right from the start because unlike a lot of start up railway's where it can be at least ten/twenty years from starting up to at least running a diesel industrial shunter and a brake van up and down this has the potential to be up and running in a couple of years.

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If this proposal is to reopen Heathfield for a regular commuter service, then are there going to be sufficient volunteers/paid staff to do the jobs at unsociable hours?

I'm sorry that this is a boat load of negativity, but it's useful for supporters of proposals to appreciate the scale of the challenge they are up against. If the plan is to reopen as a heritage railway, then yes in theory grabbing a DMU of somebody else and laying down track that doesn't touch the mainline may be feasible. But at 25mph, are journey times going to be attractive, and what would the fares be to cover the operating costs (subsidy for a heritage operation being unlikely, although you may get some assistance with commuter-specific fares).

If the plan is for a mainline re-opening, then you are talking about changing the signalling at Newton Abbot for a passenger operation, finding a compliant GWR DMU spare, installing TPWS on the track and fully upgrading stations to accessibility compliance.
As a comparison, Okehampton cost approximately £40m in 2021, while the Northumberland line is costing just under £340m in 2026, and Portishead Line (the closest comparison, IMHO) is currently on just under £200m.