Lelant Saltings railway station opened on 27 May 1978 to provide a

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...

facility for visitors to St Ives,

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England. It is situated on the

A3074 road List of A roads in zone 3 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the l ...

close to the junction with the A30 near the foot of the hill up to

Lelant Lelant () or Uny Lelant is a village in the civil parish of St Ives in, west Cornwall, England, UK. It is on the west side of the Hayle Estuary, about southeast of St Ives and one mile (1.6 km) west of Hayle.Ordnance Survey: Landranger ...

village. The park and ride facility closed in June 2019, replaced by a new one at nearby

St Erth railway station St Erth railway station is a Grade II listed station situated at Rose-an-Grouse in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It serves the nearby village of St Erth, which is about away, and is the junction for the St Ives Bay Line to St Ives, Cornwall, St I ...

, but the Saltings station remains open with a very limited service of trains.

History

station for St Ives was initially announced in January 1977 with a cost of £174,000; £116,000 of this planned amount was for signalling equipment. A site at

St Erth St Erth () is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. St Erth takes its name from Saint Erc, one of the many Irish saints who brought Christianity to Cornwall during the Sub-Roman Britain, Da ...

was proposed but deemed unsuitable since drivers coming from

Hayle Hayle (, "estuary") is a port town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the mouth of the Hayle River (which discharges into St Ives Bay) and is approximately northeast of ...

and the east would have to pass the St Ives junction to get to the station and since the railway bridge at St Erth was too narrow for pedestrians to use safely. Initial plans also proposed a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains o ...

at Porthkidney to allow for three services an hour rather than two; even at that stage, the loop was labelled "not essential" and that "British Rail would be saved a lot of money" if it were not implemented. The station was opened by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

on 27 May 1978 and had a car park for 300 vehicles. A return ticket to St Ives cost £0.60.

Cornwall County Council Cornwall Council ( ), known between 1889 and 2009 as Cornwall County Council (), is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in South West England. Since 2009 it has been a unitary authority, having taken over di ...

provided £35,000 to build the car park and

Penwith Penwith (; ) is an area of Cornwall, England, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former Non-metropolitan district, local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after one ...

District Council paid £15,000 to build the platform. During the first summer nearly 136,000 people were carried from the station, with 3,000 cars using the car park in peak weeks. Nearly 40% of users surveyed said that they would not have visited St Ives if the park and ride was not available. The park and ride closed in June 2019 when a new facility opened at St Erth Station.

Description

The station is north of St Erth and faces the

Hayle Estuary The Hayle Estuary (, meaning ''estuary'') is an estuary in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is one of the few natural harbours on the north coast of south-west England and during the prehistoric and early medieval periods was importa ...

. There is just a single

platform Platform may refer to: Arts * Platform, an arts centre at The Bridge, Easterhouse, Glasgow * ''Platform'' (1993 film), a 1993 Bollywood action film * ''Platform'' (2000 film), a 2000 film by Jia Zhangke * '' The Platform'' (2019 film) * Pla ...

built from pre-cast concrete components, which is on the left of trains arriving from St Erth. St Ives Town F.C. play their

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

matches on a pitch at The Saltings next to the station.

Services

All trains are operated by

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

. Until May 2019, the station was served by two trains per hour between

and St Ives. Since May 2019 the station is served by a '

Parliamentary service A parliamentary train was a passenger service operated in the United Kingdom to comply with the Railway Regulation Act 1844 that required train companies to provide inexpensive and basic rail transport for less affluent passengers. The act requ ...

' of just one train per day in each direction (calling at 07:56 towards St Ives and at 09:30 towards St Erth). The reduction in service was due to the relocation of the Park and Ride facility to

. As a result of the reduction in services,

, which previously had a very limited service, is now served more frequently. 100% of trains from Lelant Saltings in 2024 arrived on time, one of five stations with this record.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lelant Saltings Railway Station Railway stations in Cornwall Railway stations opened by British Rail Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1978 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway DfT Category F2 stations