Читать книгу Railway Day Trips: 160 classic train journeys around Britain - Julian Holland - Страница 7

This is a great trip to explore one of Cornwall’s (and Britain’s) premier seaside resorts and avoid traffic queues in the busy summer months. Penzance’s overall roofed station, 305 miles from Paddington, is the end of the line in the West Country. It was first reached by Brunel’s West Cornwall Railway in 1852 but was not linked to the rest of Britain’s rail network until 1859, with the opening of the Cornwall Railway between Truro and Plymouth. The short railway journey from Penzance to St Erth gives fine views of Mount’s Bay and St Michael’s Mount before turning inland at Marazion to cross this narrow point of the Cornish Peninsula. Passengers for St Ives must change trains at St Erth.

From St Erth, the 4¼-mile single-track branch line to St Ives hugs the west bank of the Hayle Estuary, passing through Lelant Saltings station where a park-and-ride scheme operates. Lelant station follows shortly after, where passengers are treated to stunning vistas across St Ives Bay to Hayle Sands. Opened in 1877, this branch line once carried thousands of holidaymakers from far-flung corners of Britain and even had its own through coach from Paddington on the GWR’s ‘Cornish Riviera Express’. Although listed for closure in the ‘Beeching Report’ of 1963, this scenic railway was reprieved and in recent years has seen buoyant growth in passenger numbers.

Following the coastline above Carbis Bay, the railway skirts Porthminster Beach before ending at the minimal, modern station of St Ives. From here it is but a short walk to the beaches, harbour, quaint streets and world-famous art galleries including the Leach Pottery, Tate St Ives and Barbara Hepworth Museum.

DESTINATION HIGHLIGHTS

14th-century Sloop Inn; harbour; beaches; shark fishing; Leach Pottery; Tate St Ives; Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden; St Ives Museum; St Ives September Festival; South West Coast Path

FREQUENCY OF TRAINS

1-2 per hour

10 MILES

40 MINUTES

NUMBER OF CHANGES: 1

(St Erth)

Sandwiched between a golf course and sand dunes, a train for St Ives heads away from Lelant station.