Barnstaple railway station

Barnstaple and its railways.
- Black lines: in use
- Grey lines: closed and lifted

The Taw Vale Railway & Dock opened a railway to carry goods traffic between a quay at Fremington Pill and Barnstaple in August 1848. William Thorne, who worked the horse-drawn trains, built a warehouse at the terminus in Barnstaple which was by the Sticklepath turnpike gate and the bridge across the River Taw.[1]

On 1 August 1854 the North Devon Railway (as the Taw Vale was now known) opened a 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) gauge line from Crediton where it linked with the Exeter and Crediton Railway. The traffic on the original line between Barnstaple and Fremington had ceased in 1851 and this line was now rebuilt to the North Devon's broad gauge, reopening as part of the route to Bideford on 2 November 1855.[2] The North Devon Railway was amalgamated into the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) on 1 January 1865 by which time the LSWR had already laid a third rail from Exeter to Bideford so that its 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) gauge trains could use the line.[3]

A single platform on the river side of the line served passengers. A goods yard was laid out between the passenger station and the river which included a goods shed behind the platform and William Thorne's old warehouse.[2][4] A second platform was added on 20 July 1874 when the Ilfracombe Branch Line opened. This included a new station at Barnstaple Quay on the other side of the river so the original 'Barnstaple' station was renamed Barnstaple Junction.[5] Three years later, on 30 April 1877, the LSWR ceased operating broad gauge trains to Barnstaple.[6]

The Devon and Somerset Railway had opened its own station in Barnstaple at Victoria Road in 1873 but from 1876 this was operated by the Great Western Railway (GWR). A connection was opened between the GWR station and the LSWR at Barnstaple Junction on 1 June 1887. This crossed the river on its own bridge and joined the LSWR line south of the Junction station. Some GWR trains continued beyond Barnstaple to Ilfracombe[7][8] In 1891 a second track was brought into use on the Exeter line as far as umberleigh.[7]The station was further enlarged and resignalled between 1922 and 1924. This included cutting back the hill above the station so that a new track could be added behind the platform hat had been built in 1874 to provide an additional platform face.[9]

The station in 1964. In the foreground, the Ilfracombe branch line tracks diverge to the left; the tracks to the right lead to Bideford.

The station saw a reduction in services from the mid-1960s. The first services to be withdrawn were the passenger trains to Torrington on 2 October 1965. Passenger services had been transferred from Victoria Road in January 1960 and the line to Taunton closed on 3 October 1966. Victoria Road remained open for goods traffic, accessed via the loop line from Barnstaple Junction, until 5 March 1970, when it closed entirely. The line to Ilfracombe was closed later that year, on 5 October, and so the station became plain Barnstaple once more.

On 21 May 1971 the track was simplified and the line to Umberleigh was reduced to just one track. A new booking office was opened on 10 November 1981 but goods trains beyond on the Fremington line were withdrawn on 31 August 1982 leaving the station as a terminus.

In 2006 the bridge that carried Sticklepath Hill (the A3125) across the former Torrington and Ilfracombe lines was demolished to make way for a road junction for the Barnstaple Western Bypass, which opened in May 2007. The roundabout here has been built on a raised platform in order to allow for the reopening of the line to Bideford should this be proved viable in the future. Work from the bypass has also included a larger station car park and better bus access – a large number of Barnstaple town services, as well as services to Bideford, Ilfracombe and South Molton now call at the station.

The café at Barnstaple station was opened in 2008 by Mike Day in one of the 'closed' areas of the station building, and it appeared in a list of the ten best station cafes published in The Guardian just one year later.[10]

Looking towards Exeter

The single platform is on the east (right) of trains arriving from Exeter. There is level access to the station car park. The centre of Barnstaple is reached by crossing the Long Bridge over the River Taw 330 yards (300 m) from the station. A footpath from the station leads onto the cycleway along the abandoned railway line to Bideford which forms part of the South West Coast Path.

Engineers sidings remain just before the terminus, with a run around loop accessed from a ground frame. The connection to the second platform also remains however the platform itself is no longer in use.

A Class 158 at Barnstaple with a train to Exeter

All services at Barnstaple are operated by Great Western Railway. There is generally one train per hour to Exeter Central[12] and they are mainly operated by Class 158 diesel units.[13]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Chapelton		Great Western Railway Tarka Line		Terminus
	Historical railways
Chapelton		London & South Western Railway Exeter to Bideford Line Ilfracombe Branch Line		Barnstaple Town
				Fremington
Barnstaple Victoria Road		Great Western Railway Taunton to Barnstaple Line		Barnstaple Town

The railway between Barnstaple and Exeter is designated as a community railway and is supported by marketing provided by the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership. The line is promoted as the Tarka Line.[14]

The Barnstaple to Bideford route was mentioned in the Association of Train Operating Companies 2009 Connecting Communities: Expanding Access to the Rail Network report which recommended some closed lines that could be rebuilt to restore railway services to large communities.[15] Following from the reopening of the Dartmoor line to Okehampton in 2021, a local 'Atlantic Coast to Exeter' campaign resumed interest in reopening the line from Barnstaple to Bideford.[16]

This line to Bideford was recreated in miniature for one day in 2009 using OO gauge track for episode 6 of James May's Toy Stories, an attempt to build the longest ever model railway orchestrated by James May. Although the track was restored between the two towns the model railway trains were only able to reach the site of Instow signalbox before failing.[17] May stated that he chose the location for the attempt due to his desire to see the line restored.[18] He repeated the experiment in 2011, using Hornby R603 rails laid as double track by a mechanical track layer. A competition saw a British team, led by May, racing three trains from Barnstaple to Bideford against a German team running the route in the opposite direction.[19] All six trains completed the 10-mile run, with the British team claiming a 2:1 victory.