Tiverton Parkway railway station

Tiverton Parkway railway station is on the Bristol to Exeter line in Devon, England. The "Parkway" name signifies that the station is a distance from Tiverton town itself: it is actually located in the civil parish of Burlescombe, near Sampford Peverell, 6 miles (9.7 km) to the east of Tiverton itself,[1] and close to the junction of the M5 motorway with the A361 North Devon link road. It is 177 miles 28 chains (285.4 km) from London Paddington via Bristol Temple Meads.

Tiverton Parkway
Location	Sampford Peverell, Mid Devon England
Coordinates	50.917°N 3.360°W
Grid reference	ST045139
Managed by	Great Western Railway
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	TVP
Classification	DfT category D
History
Original company	British Rail
Key dates
Opened	12 May 1986
Passengers
2015/16	0.478 million
2016/17	0.493 million
2017/18	0.504 million
2018/19	0.480 million
2019/20	0.510 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

The station is operated by Great Western Railway and is also served by CrossCountry trains.

History

The Bristol and Exeter Railway opened on 1 May 1844 but it ran south of Tiverton, so a station known as "Tiverton Road" was opened to serve the town. This station was renamed "Tiverton Junction" on 12 June 1848 when the Tiverton branch line was opened to a station in the town itself.[2] By the 1980s the branch had closed and the Junction station only saw a couple of trains in each direction each day, while cars on the M5 sped past just a few yards from the platforms, so a decision was taken to relocate the station a short distance to the east, close to the motorway junction where traffic from Barnstaple and Ilfracombe from the A361 joined.

Tiverton Junction closed on 11 May 1986[3] and the new station was opened the following day by David Mitchell MP, the Minister of Transport at the time.[4] It was built by British Rail on the site of the former Sampford Peverell railway station that had closed on 5 October 1964.

An additional car park for the station was opened in late 2007 as the original car park was too small when FGW increased the services to the station. The additional car park is situated alongside (but not accessed by) the A361 road and requires a short walk to the station, while the original is alongside the platform.

Description

The main entrance and a large car park are on the west side of the station, where a single-storey brick building at platform level incorporates a ticket office and a shop selling newspapers, drinks and snacks. This is the platform for trains towards London Paddington, Bristol Temple Meads and the north.

Access to the platform for trains towards Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance is over a ramped footbridge. The buildings on this platform are two large metal and glass waiting shelters. The cycleway crosses the line on this footbridge and allows access on foot or cycle from the east side.

Services

The main line services through Tiverton are provided by two operators:

• Great Western Railway operates high-speed intercity services from London Paddington via two routes, either the direct Reading to Taunton Line or on the Great Western Main Line through Bristol Temple Meads. It also operates regional services which start in the Bristol area.[5]
• CrossCountry operates services from Scotland and the north of England via Birmingham New Street and Bristol Temple Meads.[6]

The trains of both operators continue beyond Tiverton Parkway to serve stations onwards into Devon and Cornwall, including Exeter St Davids, Plymouth, Paignton and Penzance.[5][7]

A Class 802 with a service to London Paddington

Transport connections

The station is linked to both Tiverton and to Cullompton by hourly bus services that call at a bus stop in the station car park.

In addition to being situated close to the junction of the M5 motorway and the A361 North Devon link road, the National Cycle Network Route 3 (Bristol to Land's End) passes through the station and provides a safe and quiet route to local towns.

The proximity of the station to the motorway - and the relative inaccessibility of Exeter St Davids station in the city of Exeter - means that it is often used as the 'coach exchange' when the line between Exeter and Plymouth is closed and rail passengers are detrained onto coaches for the remainder of the journey. This was particularly evident in early 2014 when a storm breached the sea wall at Dawlish causing disruption to train services west of Exeter; a coach park was built to accommodate the coaches used for this.[8]

See also

• List of Parkway railway stations

References

1. https://distancecalculator.globefeed.com/UK_Distance_Result.asp?fromplace=Tiverton%2C%20United%20Kingdom&toplace=Tiverton%20Parkway%20Station%2C%20United%20Kingdom&dt1=ChIJjx-lcBOTbUgRHkS6AASCMB4&dt2=ChIJqza6fFmUbUgRfl4uN7xZOWk
2. MacDermot, E T (1931). History of the Great Western Railway, volume II 1863-1921. London: Great Western Railway.
3. "List of dates from 1 January 1985 to 20 January 2006 of last passenger trains at closed BR (or Network Rail stations since privatisation)". National Archives: Department for Transport Website: Freedom of Information Act responses, February 2006. Department for Transport. 2006. Archived from the original on 27 January 2009. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
4. Oakley, Mike (2007). Devon Railway Stations. Wimbourne: The Dovecote Press. ISBN 978-1-904349-55-6.
5. "National Rail Timetable 135" (PDF) (Summer 2016 ed.). Network Rail.
6. "National Rail Timetable 51" (PDF) (Summer 2016 ed.). Network Rail.
7. "Great Western Main Line map" (PDF). Network Rail. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
8. http://www.middevongazette.co.uk/Temporary-car-coach-park-ease-transport/story-20644368-detail/story.html