Penzance - Transport

Transport

The A30 from London to Land’s End is a trunk road as far as the Chy-an-Mor roundabout one mile to the east of Penzance. After bypassing Penzance to the north the road continues to Land’s End mainly as a rural A route. The distance from Penzance to London is 275 miles (444 km) or approximately 5 hours by car.

Penzance railway station is at the eastern end of Market Jew Street and close to the harbour. It is the southernmost station on the UK mainland rail network. It is the western terminus of the Cornish Main Line which runs above the beach to Marazion, affording passengers good views of St. Michael's Mount and Mount's Bay. Most services are operated by First Great Western, both local services to St Erth, St Ives, Hayle, Camborne, Redruth and Truro, and direct trains linking Penzance with Plymouth, Exeter St David's, Bristol Temple Meads, Reading and London Paddington. The Night Riviera train offers an overnight sleeping car service to and from Reading and London. Journey time to Plymouth is typically under 2 hours; to Bristol around 4 hours, and London less than 5½ hours.

CrossCountry run a small number of services (departing in the morning, arriving in the evening) to Glasgow Central via Bristol, Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly, also to Dundee via Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, York, Newcastle Central and Edinburgh Waverley. The journey time is just under 5½ hours to Birmingham, and nearly 10 hours to Glasgow.

The bus and coach station is next to the railway station from where National Express operates coach services to London Victoria (taking around 9 hours) via Heathrow Airport. Local bus services run by First Devon and Cornwall connect Penzance with most major settlements in Cornwall, including Truro, St. Ives, St Just, St Buryan, Land's End and also Plymouth in Devon. Western Greyhound also run a small amount of rural services to various destinations on the North Cornwall coast.

A ferry service is operated between Penzance Harbour and the Isles of Scilly by The Scillonian III, carrying both foot-passengers and cargo. Sailing time is approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes. A helicopter service operates from Penzance Heliport to the Isles of Scilly run by British International Helicopters. Flying time is approximately 20 minutes. A bus service run by the Skybus Airline Service connects with Land's End Airport for fixed wing flights (15 minutes) to the Isles of Scilly. The buses leave from the railway station, near the taxi rank, rather than the bus station. In December, the Heliport also offers short evening flights over Mousehole and Newlyn to view the Christmas lights. The Heliport is one of only eleven heliports in the UK.

Newquay Airport is 41 miles (66 km) away and offers flights to Gatwick, Stansted, Dublin, Cork and many other places, including an increasing number of foreign destinations.