Can you realistically explore one of the most remote counties in England by rail? That’s something we set out to do on our recent trip to Cornwall; I say we but actually The Boyfriend is rather well versed in rail travel and I’m a bit of a Johnny come lately (barring the university commute of 15 years ago). Ordinarily it would be obvious to me to hire a car, break the journey up and explore our destination via four wheels.
First up I need to be completely honest and say that I did not have a hand at all in the itinerary, I left that in the capable hands of him – he planned every train, every move, every stop, every walk it was an absolute delight not to have to think about any of our travel plans.
To give you an idea of what Cornwall by train looked like for us I’ve included our itinerary below; obviously it’s horses for courses or trains for tracks (I’m here all week!) but it gives you a general idea of how you can move around really easily and in a really adaptable way.
Monday
London Paddington – Dawlish
Dawlish – Hayle (where we stayed)
Tuesday
Hayle – St Erth
St Erth – Carbis Bay
St Ives – Lelant
St Erth – Penzance
Penzance – Hayle
Wednesday
Hayle – Liskeard
Coombe Junction Halt* – Looe
Looe – Liskeard
Liskeard – Exeter
Thursday
Exeter – London Paddington
*We all know just how excited I was to catch a train from Coombe Junction Halt.
As you can see there are a number of geographical gaps in our train travel and that’s because we trained, we walked, we sat, we pub-ed, we relaxed. I hadn’t thought that train travel could be part of a leisure journey, viewing it instead as a necessary when getting from A to B – this trip taught me that it’s about the journey as much as it is the destination.
It would be remiss of me to not address the cost of train travel. Tickets can vary vastly in price depending on when you book them and when you travel; one way of approaching this is to reframe the cost: build it into part of the experience – obviously that’s not appropriate for everybody but in this case we opted to incorporate a lunch on the way down and a night in Exeter on the way back. For our time in Cornwall, the Cornwall Ranger is a ticket that is perfect for exploring the county, for less than £14 a day you can travel unlimited (off-peak) within Cornwall including to and from Plymouth.
Train travel is experiencing somewhat of a resurgence hopping back to a bygone era of slower times, of simpler times, perhaps of times when we can pause lean our head on the window and just lose ourselves in the scenery as we hurtle past at what feels like 1000 miles an hour but is more likely 110 miles an hour. It’s the reassuring whir of the wheels on the tracks, the rhythmic lulling as you relinquish all responsibilities – it’s like being a child again, whilst all very grown up… a very welcome feeling.
However is Cornwall by train actually practical? I will admit coming as the woman who has flown to Scotland twice I was a little bit more than sceptical: would I lose all sentient feeling in my lower body before we made it over The Royal Albert Bridge as we crossed the River Tamar into Cornwall? I was surprised at the real connectivity in Cornwall, both the high speed line and the smaller coastal lines. It made getting round really easy. Over the three days, we encountered minimal (think a few minutes) delays and only one cancellation and that was on the main line, which was easily made up with a train behind. I also came back from what was a jam packed trip feeling rested – I have to attribute a large portion of that to not spending hours driving; our getaway began as we pulled out of London Paddington – not something you could say if you were queuing to join the M25.
Four days door to door from London to Cornwall, back again and everywhere wonderful in between saw us travel 625 miles by rail.
What would I change? Next time I’d love to travel down on the Night Riviera Sleeper service, a nightly service between London and Penzance (and reverse) where you can book a cabin whilst combining travel and hotel in one, waking up refreshed in Cornwall ready to explore. It sounds like so much fun (I mean who wouldn’t want to go to sleep in one place and wake up somewhere else) and that really should be at the forefront of your choices when it comes to travel and trips.
Will I be back to Cornwall? Yes. Will I do Cornwall by train again? Absolutely… because there will always be more to see and do in Cornwall, you’ll never ‘complete’ it and that’s the beauty.
