Apprentices
Open access operator Lumo has announced that 19 out of 20 employees with the firm began their railway careers as apprentices, following a five-year partnership between Lumo and railway trainers Train’d Up. Lumo said that 78 drivers and other train staff had been successfully enrolled. The United Kingdom has seen the number of apprenticeships rise by 2.5 per cent over the past year.
Station name
The name of a new station on the Dartmoor Line between Exeter and Okehampton has been decided. When passenger services were restored west of Crediton in November 2021 it was already known that an additional station was proposed on the outskirts of Okehampton, tentatively called Okehampton Parkway. Since regular train services were launched passenger figures have been well above expectations, and the original two-hourly frequency was later doubled to hourly. The name of the new station, costing around £13 million and funded by the Government’s Levelling-Up scheme, has now been confirmed as Okehampton Interchange. It will have a larger car park and better bus services than the existing station near Okehampton town centre.