Exmouth - Transport

Transport

Exmouth railway station is the terminus of the Avocet Line to Exeter St David's station although the trains run through to Paignton and Barnstaple alternately through the day. A cycle way has been built alongside the railway as far as Topsham. The Exmouth to Starcross Ferry is a passenger ferry that operates during the summer months across the Exe estuary to Starcross, where the pumping station for Brunel's Atmospheric Railway can be seen.

There have been three railway stations at Exmouth. The line first reached Exmouth from Exeter in 1861. In the first five days 10,000 people travelled on the line and property prices increased overnight. By the 1880s commuter traffic to Exeter was considerable. In 1903 a link to Budleigh Salterton was opened the line going eastward over a viaduct which went from Exeter Road to Park Road where it entered a cutting continuing onto Littleham Cross where there was also a station (now a private residence), and from there to Budleigh Salterton, there turning north to rejoin the main London and South Western Railway line. Exmouth Station was rebuilt in 1926. When the line to Budleigh was lifted the viaduct was left in place for many years, with its final destruction in the late 1980s. Housing marks its position now.

The route of the line continued behind Phear Park, which was once the grounds of a large house belonging to the Phear family, used during the Second World War to station US soldiers. Shortly after the war the house was burnt down and left derelict; eventually it too was demolished, and its grounds were given to the town by the Phear family to become a park. The old railway line behind Phear Park was just left as a bare trackbed for many years. At its far end there was a deep cutting to Littleham, which was filled in when the line was closed. The trackbed has now been tarmaced and now forms an off-road cycle way and footpath from Exmouth to Knowle, close Budleigh Salterton.

The latest station was built in 1981 beside the bus station and is a single platform station. It also has a pay and display car park for rail users.