Barnstaple railway station This route was eventually extended to loop back to Okehampton via Torrington and Halwill Junction. The North Devon Railway was amalgamated into the London and South Western Railway on 1 January 1865. The station was enlarged and became known as Barnstaple Junction on 20 July 1874 when the railway opened the Ilfracombe branch line. The line crossed the river on a large bridge to a station at Barnstaple Quay which in turn was replaced by Barnstaple Town on an adjacent site in 1898 when the narrow gauge Lynton and Barnstaple Railway was opened. This station is now a smart school.
Barnstaple railway station centre of Barnstaple is reached by crossing the Long Bridge over the River Taw from the station. A footpath from the station leads onto the cycleway along the abandoned railway line to Bideford which forms part of the South West Coast Path. Engineers sidings remain just before the terminus, with a run around loop accessed from a ground frame. The connection to the second platform also remains however the platform itself is no longer in use. Barnstaple is served by fourteen trains each weekday (approximately once each hour), fifteen on Saturdays (due to a 00:05 service) and seven on Sundays