Saltash railway station serves the town of

Saltash Saltash (Cornish: Essa) is a town and civil parish in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It had a population of 16,184 in 2011 census. Saltash faces the city of Plymouth over the River Tamar and is popularly known as "the Gateway to Corn ...

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 on the south side of the town between the

Royal Albert Bridge The Royal Albert Bridge is a railway bridge which spans the River Tamar in England between Plymouth, Devon and Saltash, Cornwall. Its unique design consists of two lenticular iron trusses above the water, with conventional plate-girder app ...

which crosses the

River Tamar The Tamar (; kw, Dowr Tamar) is a river in south west England, that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A part of the Tamar Valley is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities. T ...

and the Coombe Viaduct which spans a small tributary of the same river. Trains are operated 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 ...

. The station is from via . The line singles at the east end of the station passing over the Royal Albert Bridge.

History

The station opened with the

Cornwall Railway The Cornwall Railway was a broad gauge railway from Plymouth in Devon to Falmouth in Cornwall, England, built in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was constantly beset with shortage of capital for the construction, and was eventu ...

on 4 May 1859. It was described at the time as being "at the head of that town. It consists of an arrival and departure station, both being stone buildings, and possessing all requisite offices for the accommodation of the traffic. New and convenient approaches are likely to be made to that station by the corporation and the owners of adjoining property, which will prove a great public benefit." 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 ...

was opened early in 1863 and the station was rebuilt in 1880–1881. The Cornwall Railway was amalgamated into the

on 1 July 1889. To counter competition from electric

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

s, the

opened several small stations in Plymouth and began to operate an intensive service of local trains between Saltash, Plymouth and

Plympton Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down river to Plym ...

in July 1904. The services were vastly reduced after the Tamar road bridge opened in 1961. The Great Western Railway was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

into

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

from 1 January 1948 which was in turn privatised in the 1990s.

Facilities

The station is unstaffed and has no ticket provision, so all tickets must be purchased in advance or from the conductor on the train. Waiting shelters, bicycle racks and bench seats are provided on each side, while train running information is offered via customer help points, timetable posters and a public telephone. Step-free access is available to both platforms. In 2017, Saltash Town Council purchased the building, and - working with Cornwall Council, Great Western Railway, Network Rail and the Railway Heritage Trust - restored the building to provide a waiting room, toilets and refreshments, as well as a community hall and business hub, reopening the restored building in November 2021.

Services

Saltash - GWR 150261 arriving from Penzance

Saltash is served by most

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 ...

between and including a few that run to or from

London Paddington station Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great We ...

. On weekdays there are one or two trains each hour in each direction during the daytime but early mornings, in the evenings and on Sundays the service is less frequent.

References

External links

Saltash Rail Users Group

{{cornwall, state=collapsed Railway stations in Cornwall Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1859 Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations served by Great Western Railway DfT Category F2 stations