Everything about Penzance Railway Station totally explained
Penzance railway station serves the town of
Penzance,
Cornwall,
UK. The station is the western terminus of the 491 km (305¼ miles)
Cornish Main Line from
London Paddington. The current journey time to or from London is about 5 hours.
Platforms 1, 2 and 3 are within the main
train shed; Platform 4 on the south side is in the open air. A large stone at the end of this platform welcomes people to Penzance in both English and
Cornish. This side of the station is built on the sea wall near the harbour, the other side is cut into the hillside.
It is the southernmost and westernmost station in
England, although not
Great Britain as some stations in
Scotland are further west. The station is operated by
First Great Western as is every other station in Cornwall.
This is the Cornish terminus of the
Night Riviera sleeper train to and from London
Paddington station.
One of Britain's longest distance rail service starts at Penzance, the 0830 Penzance - Dundee, arriving in Dundee at 20:25, a total time of 11:55, run by
CrossCountry.
Bus station
The bus station is situated immediately outside the station entrance; this good example of transport integration arising from the
Great Western Railway's operation of most of the
early bus services in the area. History has come full circle, with the
First Group again operating a large number of both the buses and trains in the area.
The Tourism Information Centre is located in the middle of the bus station.
There is also a bus service that connects the railway station with the
heliport, from which there are scheduled flights to the
Isles of Scilly.
History
The station was opened by the
West Cornwall Railway on
11 March 1852 as the terminus of its line from
Redruth. This wooden station was replaced by the current buildings in
1879. Further alterations were made in
1937 and again in
1983 when new a ticket office and buffet were opened.
The arch that's blocked up in the wall that retains the hillside behind the platforms was used by the railway as a coal store. Freight traffic, especially the busy fish trade, was handled in a goods yard where the cars are now parked adjacent to the bus station. An engine shed was also situated here before being moved to the opposite side of the line near the end of the retaining wall, but it has since been replaced by the new
Penzance TMD outside the station at
Long Rock.
Platform usage
At Penzance, certain trains use certain platforms:
- At weekends, Platform 4 is also used by
FGW DMU local services.
- CrossCountry Voyagers sometimes double up on platform 4, one in front of the other, but not coupled up. The one in front runs an earlier service than the one behind; they can also do this once their services have finished for the day and await to depart to
Penzance TMD for overnight servicing.
- Local DMU services are stored on platform 3, and in the sidings off platform 4 overnight for servicing. This leaves platforms 1, 2 and 4 for early morning intercity services to use, before the local services start.
- Until January 2008 FGW HST's used Platform 4 mainly but due to problems with closing slam doors on the un-platformed side they were moved to Platform 1 mainly, previously the secondary platform, and platform 2 as a secondary peak time platform. As the Night Riviera also uses slam doors, this was moved to any available platform, usually platform 1. This forced Cross Country Voyagers to use platform 4, as they don't use slam doors they can safely stop there.
Services
Penzance is the terminus of the
Cornish Main Line which sees a mixture of local trains to
Plymouth and longer distance services to
London Paddington station, including the
Night Riviera overnight sleeping car service and the
Golden Hind which offers an early morning service to London and an evening return. Other fast trains are the mid-morning
Cornish Riviera and the afternoon
Royal Duchy.
A handful of trains operated by
CrossCountry leave Penzance each morning for
Scotland and return in the evening.
From December 2008
CrossCountry services to/from penzance will be an extension of the
Plymouth -
Edinburgh Waverley route, also
South West Trains services will stop and terminate at
Exeter St Davids.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Penzance Railway Station'.
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