NEWS that the main rail link to Newton Abbot is to reopen two weeks earlier than anticipated has been widely welcomed.

Train services should be operating again between Newton Abbot and Exeter on Friday, April 4.

Anne Marie Morris, Newton Abbot MP, was delighted that Network Rail has confirmed the storm-damaged line will be repaired and reopened to trains in time for Easter.

More than 300 engineers have been working to repair the line from Dawlish Warren to Teignmouth after two storms created the worst breach of ther line – at Dawlish – for almost 100 years, severing rail connections between Exeter and Newton Abbot.