Looking along platforms 7 and 8 at Plymouth station

Plymouth (Plymouth)

The main station in Plymouth is to be transformed because it's currently functional rather than fabulous

Share

At a Glance

Services

Travel Information Desk
Accessibility

Step Free
Onward Travel

Taxi Rank

The railways of Britain underwent a modernisation scheme back in the 1950s and as a consequence the war-damaged station in Plymouth was replaced with a rather utilitarian building, which is now showing its age.

Plans have been announced for a welcome rebuild, but for travellers the most welcome change in recent years have been the provision of elevator access to and from the subway which is beneath the railway tracks.
This passage way connects the main station building to platforms (tracks) 5 – 8 which are accessed by staircases as well as the elevator.

Platforms 3 and 4 are level with the terminal building and are accessed through the doors, which are to the left of the stairs down to the passage way in the main station building.
Something worth being aware of if you want to use the elevators to access platforms 5 – 8 from the main station building is that they aren’t located in the main hall at the station.
For step-free access you need to go through those doors on to platform 4 and the elevator down to the passage way will then be on the left.

To the city centre:

Plymouth station is to the north of the city centre, but despite its somewhat distant location, the access by local bus between the station and the most popular attractions in the city, is somewhat compromised.

There isn’t a bus terminal on the station forecourt, instead the nearest bus stop is to the right of the exit, at the end of the access road.
All the buses from here go to the Royal Parade in the heart of the city, but to access the likes of Plymouth Hoe, the Torpoint Ferry, the Mayflower Museum, the National Marine Aquarium and the popular areas at Devils’ Point and West Hoe, a change of bus is required at the Royal Parade.

Accessing all of these areas and attractions at a leisurely walking pace from will take at least 30 minutes, Plymouth station is at the opposite end of the city centre to its shoreline.

Plymouth city centre was largely rebuilt in the 1960s and a wide tree-line pedestrian boulevard named Armada Way cuts through the city centre and the intention was to provide a new direct straight route between the station and Plymouth Hoe.
However, the access between the station and Armada Way is compromised because a hideous multi-storey car park has been constructed outside the station’s entrance.

Therefore the walking route to Armada Way involves turning left on exiting the station and following a seemingly unpromising and steep road up around the side of the cark park.
Once the main road has been reached the pathway down to Armada Way will be ahead, but this road from the station isn’t particularly well lit.
ShowMeTheJourney suspects that the taxi drivers in Plymouth do particularly good business at the city’s station.

Train service summary:

Train Operating Company:

Destinations:

GWR

(1) London Paddington via Newton Abbot, Exeter, Taunton and Reading
(2) Cardiff via Exeter, Taunton, Bristol and Newport
(3) Exeter via Totness, Newton Abbot and Teigmouth
(4) Penzance via Bodmin Parkway, St Austell and Truro
(5) Gunislake via Bere Alston on the Tamar Valley line

CrossCountry

Glasgow via, Exeter, Taunton, Bristol, Birmingham, Derby, Sheffield, Leeds, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh

Journeys

# Jump to a direction
Journeys to Plymouth
Jump to directions
Edinburgh to Plymouth by train
London to Plymouth by train
hand-money

Please support ShowMeTheJourney

Help keep us advertising and paywall free!

Donate

This second version of ShowMeTheJourney is exciting and new, so we are genuinely thrilled that you are here and reading this, but we also need your help.

We’re striving not to let anything get in the way of providing the most useful service possible, hence a facility has been set up with DonorBox which can be used to support the running costs and make improvements.

Instead of advertising or paywalls, your financial support will make a positive difference to delivering an enhanced service, as there’s a lot of ideas which we want to make happen.

So if you have found the info provided here to be useful, please consider saying thank you.

ShowMeTheJourney

This is one of more than 100 train travel guides available on ShowMeTheJourney, which will make it easier to take the train journeys you want or need to make. As always, all images were captured on trips taken by ShowMeTheJourney.