Getting to the South West Coast Path by Train, Bus and Ferry

The South West Coast Path is walked in sections because it can be: railway lines reach the coast at more than a dozen points along the 630 miles, and where the trains stop the buses take over. The National Trail team says that both ends can be reached from London by a combination of train and bus and points walkers to National Rail and Traveline for the timetables. This guide goes through the two ends and then the railheads county by county, so that the itineraries can be matched to a station at each end.

Journey times and fares change; this page is about which line goes where and what it connects to, not today's timetable.

The start — Minehead

Minehead has a railway station, close to the beach, but it is the terminus of the West Somerset Railway, a heritage line running the 20.5 miles to Bishops Lydeard on a seasonal timetable — weekends and some other days from March to October, daily in late spring and summer, and only certain days in winter. It is not a National Rail station and does not connect at Taunton; the line stops about two miles short. It is a pleasant way to arrive if the dates line up, not a way of getting there from London.

The practical route is rail to Taunton and bus. Taunton is on the Bristol to Exeter line and the Reading to Taunton line, with Great Western Railway trains from London Paddington towards Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance, an hourly service from Cardiff and Bristol Temple Meads, and CrossCountry services from the north. Taunton station has a bus shelter at the north end of platform 2 with level access from the car park for the rail-link buses to Minehead. That bus is the First Buses of Somerset 28/28A, Taunton to Minehead via Norton Fitzwarren, Bishops Lydeard, Williton and Watchet, with Taunton railway station as a timing point on the route. From the bus you walk to the Start sculpture on the seafront and stage 1, Minehead to Porlock Weir, begins.

The finish — South Haven Point

The path ends at South Haven Point on the Studland side of the mouth of Poole Harbour, beside the Sandbanks chain ferry. The ferry links Studland and the Isle of Purbeck with Sandbanks and Bournemouth, saving a 25-mile road journey round the harbour, and carries foot passengers as well as cars. It runs from 7 am to 11 pm on 364 days a year — 8 am to 6 pm on Christmas Day — with departures roughly every 20 minutes, though the harbour entrance is a busy waterway and the timetable slips. Once every two years there is a refit that normally suspends the service for about a fortnight in November; if your finish is in a November, check.

Morebus route 50 runs between Swanage and Bournemouth and uses the ferry throughout the day, so from the finish marker you can cross as a foot passenger and pick it up on the Sandbanks side, or board it before the ferry. Bournemouth station, a little over a kilometre from the town centre, is on the South West Main Line with two trains an hour to London Waterloo off-peak, one fast and one semi-fast, and CrossCountry services beyond. Poole, the next station down the line, is the other option if you stay in Poole. The last stage, Worth Matravers to South Haven Point, is 27.5 km, so do not plan a tight connection at the end of it.

Somerset and North Devon

There is no railway on the coast between Minehead and Barnstaple. The Exmoor stages and the Hangman are bus country, and the North Devon section starts from Lynmouth, which has no station.

Barnstaple is the railhead. It is the northern terminus of the Tarka Line from Exeter St Davids and Exeter Central, 39 miles, about 75 minutes, with generally one Great Western Railway train an hour. The branches on from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe and to Bideford closed in 1970 and 1965, so the station is a few miles inland from the path and the coast is reached by bus. It serves the estuary stages — Woolacombe to Braunton, Braunton to Instow and Instow to Westward Ho! — and, with a bus, Ilfracombe, Croyde and Clovelly. Bude, at the end of the county, has no railway.

Cornwall

Cornwall has the best rail access on the path, because the Cornish Main Line runs the 79.5 miles from Plymouth to Penzance down the spine of the county and five passenger branches leave it, three of them ending on the coast path. The main line carries direct trains from London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Newcastle and Edinburgh via Plymouth; its principal stations include Par, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle and St Erth.

Newquay is the terminus of the Atlantic Coast Line, a 20¾-mile branch from Par with intermediate stations at St Blazey, Luxulyan, Bugle, Roche, St Columb Road and Quintrell Downs. Great Western Railway runs the local service hourly and there are some summer through services from London Paddington. The station is in the heart of the town, close to the beaches, with the coast path about 50 yards away — it sits between Porthcothan to Newquay and Newquay to Perranporth. Padstow and Port Isaac to the north have no railway; arrive there by bus.

Hayle is on the main line itself, at the end of Portreath to Hayle and the start of the shortest stage on the path.

St Ives is the end of the St Ives Bay Line, 4.25 miles of single track from St Erth via Lelant Saltings, Lelant and Carbis Bay, run by Great Western Railway with around 26–28 trains on a weekday. The station stands immediately above Porthminster beach with a path down to it and the town centre a short walk down the hill, which makes Hayle to St Ives the most reachable stage end in Cornwall. The park-and-ride was moved from Lelant Saltings to St Erth in 2019.

Penzance is the terminus of the Cornish Main Line and the southernmost station in Great Britain, on the sea wall by the harbour. It has direct inter-city services to London Paddington including the overnight Night Riviera sleeper, and a small number of CrossCountry trains. It is the railhead for Land's End, Mousehole and Marazion — the start of Marazion to Porthleven is a short bus ride or walk along the bay.

Falmouth is the end of the Maritime Line, 11.75 miles from Truro via Perranwell, Penryn and Penmere to Falmouth Town and Falmouth Docks, with trains typically every half hour during the day. Falmouth Town is the most central of the three Falmouth stations. Helford to Falmouth ends here, and Falmouth to Portloe leaves by the year-round St Mawes ferry.

Looe is the end of the Looe Valley Line from Liskeard, listed among the main line's branches, and sits on Polperro to Portwrinkle. Par itself, where the Newquay branch leaves, is the end of Mevagissey to Par.

Plymouth and South Devon

Plymouth is a principal stop on the Exeter–Plymouth line and the Cornish Main Line, with services from London Paddington at least hourly through the day — including the Cornish Riviera and the Night Riviera — and CrossCountry trains from Scotland and the north via Bristol. The station is on the northern edge of the city centre. Portwrinkle to Plymouth arrives by the year-round Cremyll ferry across the Tamar, and Plymouth to Wembury leaves along the waterfront.

Between Plymouth and Torbay the South Hams have no railway; Newton Ferrers, Bigbury, Salcombe and Torcross are bus and ferry country, which is one reason the South Devon section is a spring-to-autumn walk.

The Riviera Line brings the railway back to the coast. It runs 28.25 miles from Exeter to Paignton, and the stations at Dawlish — right on the beach — Teignmouth, Torquay, by Abbey Sands, and Paignton all sit on or beside the path. Between Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth the line runs for about four miles along the sea wall at the foot of the cliffs, which the path shares. Dartmouth and Brixham are reached from Paignton by bus; Brixham to Babbacombe and Babbacombe to Exmouth pass all four stations.

Exmouth is the end of the Avocet Line, 11¼ miles from Exeter St Davids along the Exe estuary, with a train about every 30 minutes in the daytime and 37 services a day on weekdays. The station is a quarter of a mile from the coast path. Across the river, Starcross station is half a mile plus the ferry along the path in the other direction, and the seasonal Starcross–Exmouth ferry is the crossing on stage 43; when it is not running the train via Exeter is the alternative, as the ferries page notes. Exmouth to Sidmouth begins at the station end of the seafront.

Dorset

Weymouth is the railhead for the Jurassic Coast: the southern terminus of the South West Main Line, 142 miles 64 chains from London Waterloo, with South Western Railway generally running two trains an hour to London, and the end of the Heart of Wessex Line from Bristol Temple Meads, with about eight Great Western Railway trains a day. It sits in the middle of the Dorset week — Abbotsbury to Ferrybridge and the Portland circuit are either side of it — which is why the itineraries guide splits Dorset here. The main line also serves Dorchester South, Wareham for the Purbeck buses, Poole and Bournemouth. Lyme Regis, Lulworth and Swanage have no railway.

Choosing a section by its stations

Put the railheads on the map and the popular sections explain themselves: Padstow to St Ives finishes at a station; Marazion to Falmouth has Penzance near one end and Falmouth at the other; Plymouth to Exmouth has a station at both ends and four in between; the Dorset week has Weymouth in the middle. The sections that need more planning — Minehead to Bude, the South Hams — are the ones between railheads, and there the bus timetable is the first thing to look up, before the beds.