Lelant Saltings railway station opened on 27 May 1978 to provide a park and ride facility for visitors to St Ives,Cornwall,England. It is situated on the A3074 road close to the junction with the A30 near the foot of the hill up to Lelant village. The park and ride facility closed in June 2019,replaced by a new one at nearby St Erth railway station,but the Saltings station remains open with a very limited service of trains.
A park and ride 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.[1] A site at St Erth was proposed but deemed unsuitable since drivers coming from Hayle 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.[1] Initial plans also proposed a passing loop 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.[1]
The station was opened by British Rail on 27 May 1978 and had a car park for 300 vehicles. A return ticket to St Ives cost £0.60. Cornwall County Council provided £35,000 to build the car park and Penwith 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.[2] The park and ride closed in June 2019 when a new facility opened at St Erth Station.
Description
The station is 0.5 miles (800m) north of St Erth and faces the Hayle Estuary. There is just a single platform[3] 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 matches on a pitch at The Saltings next to the station.
Since May 2019 the station is served by a 'Parliamentary service' of just one train per day in each direction (calling at 07:56 towards St Ives and at 09:30 towards St Erth).[4] The reduction in service was due to the relocation of the Park and Ride facility to St Erth. As a result of the reduction in services,Lelant,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.[5]
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