A plan to re-open the  15 miles railway line between Plymouth and Tavistock, are a little closer with the news that a developer has offered to pay for the line to be restored in exchange for being allowed to build 750 new homes in Tavistock. The line would cost about £20m to reopen.

The deal has been proposed by a company called Kilbride Community Rail. and a planning application is now in the process of being submitted to West Devon Borough Council. The rights to the track bed of the old line will be transferred to Devon County Council later this year.

Richard Burningham, from Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership, said: "In technical and feasibility terms it would be quite an easy [line] reopening. Kilbride have come along and said 'we'll do you a deal, you allow us to build a certain number of houses in Tavistock and we'll build you a railway'."

Jon Shaw, director of the Centre for Sustainable Transport at the University of Plymouth, backed the plan: "We'd like to see people move out of their cars and onto the railway lines. It's good for easing congestion, it's good for the environment and it promotes social inclusion."

The original Plymouth to Tavistock line was closed when Dr Beeching was tasked with reducing Britain's railway network by a third in the 1960s.

The present day line only runs as far as Bere Alston and housing has been built on some of the former track.