St Ives railway station is a railway station which serves the coastal town of

St Ives, Cornwall St Ives ( kw, Porth Ia, meaning "Ia of Cornwall, St Ia's cove") is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commerci ...

, England. It was opened in 1877 as the terminus of the last new

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

passenger railway to be constructed in the country. Converted to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

in 1892, it is today served by

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

services on the

St Ives Bay Line The St Ives Bay Line is a railway line from to in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It was opened in 1877, the last new broad gauge passenger railway to be constructed in the country. Converted to standard gauge in 1892, it continues to ...

from . It is from via .

History

The station was opened by the

on the 1 June 1877 as the terminus of a long, gauge branch line from which until then had been known as ''St Ives Road'' to indicate its position as the railhead for the town. The platform was on a sharp curve with a

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...

behind it. The town end of the platform was used to load railway trucks with fish that were caught by the many local boats, many of which were drawn up on Porthminster beach, just below the station. Immediately outside the station was the long St Ives

Viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

. A small

engine shed The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...

was situated on the far side of the viaduct. The Great Western Railway purchased the

Tregenna Castle Tregenna Castle, ( kw, Kastel Tregenow, meaning "Kenow’s settlement") in St Ives, Cornwall, was built by Samuel Stephens in the 18th century and is named after the hill on which it stands. The estate was sold in 1871 and became a hotel, a purp ...

, on the hill above the station, and opened it as a hotel to coincide with the opening of the railway. The railway has played an important part in developing the tourist business in the area. The line was converted from broad gauge after the last train ran on Friday 20 May 1892; services from the following Monday running as standard gauge. On 12 November 1894 heavy rain caused flood water to run down Tregenna Hill. It broke through a wall, flooding down onto the station below, from where it cascaded off the other side down on to the beach. The heavy fish traffic of the 19th century largely disappeared during the first half of the 20th century and all goods traffic was withdrawn from the station on 9 September 1963. The

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

was no longer staffed and all the sidings were taken out of use by 1966. A

camping coach Camping coaches were holiday accommodation offered by many railway companies in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the 1930s. The coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in trains, which were converted to ...

was positioned here by the Western Region in 1958 and 1959; then there were two coaches from 1960 to 1964. The line was proposed for closure following the

Beeching Report Beeching is an English surname. Either a derivative of the old English ''bece'', ''bæce'' "stream", hence "dweller by the stream" or of the old English ''bece'' "beech-tree" hence "dweller by the beech tree".''Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames' ...

and, because of this, was mentioned in the song " Slow Train" by

Flanders and Swann Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo. Lyricist, actor and singer Michael Flanders (1922–1975) and composer and pianist Donald Swann (1923–1994) collaborated in writing and performing comic songs. They first worked together in a scho ...

. The line however was reprieved, but the original curved station was closed on 23 May 1971 and a new, straight, platform opened on the site of the goods shed to replace it. The site of the original station is now a car park, but the railway also brings people from the

Park and Ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuting, commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail t ...

car park at St Erth.

Stationmaters

*Charles L. Williams 1877 – 1912 *Frank Hobley 1912 – 1918 (formerly station master at Banbury) *C.E. Welch c. 1920 – 1926 *N.W. Bickford 1926 – 1931 *F.J. Morrish 1931 – 1940 *R.P. Grenfell 1940 – 1951 (formerly station master at St Erth) *A. Webb c. 1960

Description

The station is situated on the hill above Porthminster beach on the south side of the town. It has a single platform, which is on the left of trains arriving from St Erth, which is to the south. There is a large car park adjacent to the platform, and the town centre is a short walk down the hill from the car park entrance. The town's small bus station is situated at the car park entrance. A travel agency immediately adjacent to the station platform contains a rail ticket booking office. Tickets issued to/from the station describe it as "St Ives Cornwall". A path leads from the car park down to Porthminster beach, from where the

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises a ...

can be followed back to Carbis Bay or through the town towards

Lands End Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...

Services

All trains are operated by

. All services operate to and from , and connect with trains on the

Cornish Main Line The Cornish Main Line ( kw, Penn-hyns-horn Kernow) is a railway line in Cornwall and Devon in the United Kingdom. It runs from Penzance to Plymouth, crossing from Cornwall into Devon over the famous Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash. It directly ...

. During the daytime there are two services each hour. Only one of these typically calls at Lelant, with some gaps. The first and last train of the day (plus an early evening service on Saturday) are extended to to facilitate crew changes.

References

External links

Video footage and history of St Ives railway station
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Ives Railway Station Railway stations in Cornwall Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1877 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Buildings and structures in St Ives, Cornwall DfT Category F1 stations