Quintrell Downs railway station serves the village of

Quintrell Downs Quintrell Downs is a village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, close to Newquay, at the junction of the A392 and A3058 roads.Ordnance Survey ''Landranger 200; Newquay, Bodmin & surrounding area, 1:50 000''. 1988 It is named after the surroundi ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, England. It is measured from , on the Atlantic Coast Line. The station is managed 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 ...

with local services in each direction all calling here.

History

The first railway here was a horse-worked line from

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

Harbour to Hendra Crazey. It was built by

Joseph Treffry Joseph Austen Treffry (1782 – 29 January 1850) was an engineer, mining adventurer, and industrialist who became a significant landowner in Cornwall, England. Biography Born in Plymouth, Devon as Joseph Thomas Austen, to Joseph Austen (d 1786 ...

and completed in 1849. The

Cornwall Minerals Railway The Cornwall Minerals Railway owned and operated a network of of standard gauge railway lines in central Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It started by taking over an obsolescent horse-operated tramway in 1862, and it improved and extended i ...

opened its line from

Fowey Fowey ( ; kw, Fowydh, meaning 'Beech Trees') is a port town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town has been in existence since well before the Norman invasion, with the local ch ...

to St Dennis Junction on 1 June 1874, where it connected with Treffry's Newquay Railway. Although a siding was provided at an early date and passenger trains began passing through from 20 June 1876, the station at Quintrell Downs was not opened until 2 October 1911 (as Quintrell Downs Platform), by which time the line was part of the

. The suffix 'platform' in a GWR station name meant a staffed halt, and a member of staff remained until the gated level crossing was replaced by an open crossing in the 1990s. This crossing was upgraded to automatic half barriers in 2003-04.

Location

All trains pause at this station when travelling in the up direction towards Par so that the level crossing can be activated. However, such stops are not available to passengers.

Services

Quintrell Downs is the only intermediate station on the line to not be a request stop. The typical service is one train every two hours in each direction between Par and Newquay, with some services extending to

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

and one train in the summer extending to

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

. There are few local services on summer Saturdays, when intercity trains run through to Newquay. Because of this, there is just one train per day in each direction due to the faster services running through to Newquay. Local trains are usually operated by Class 150 ''Sprinters.''

Community rail

Local trains on the Newquay branch are designated as

community rail Community rail in Britain is the support of railway lines and stations by local organisations, usually through community rail partnerships (CRPs) comprising railway operators, local councils, and other community organisations, and rail user group ...

services and are supported with marketing jointly provided by the

Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership The Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership is the largest Community Rail Partnership in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1991 to promote the use of, and improvements to, rural railways in Devon and Cornwall, and also to promote the places serv ...

and the franchised operator. The route is promoted as the " Atlantic Coast Line".

References

* * * {{Cornwall railway stations Railway stations in Cornwall Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1911 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway DfT Category F2 stations