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Coombe Junction Halt railway station

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Coombe Junction Halt
National Rail
Looking towards Moorswater
General information
LocationCoombe, Cornwall
England
Coordinates50°26′42″N 4°28′52″W / 50.4449°N 4.48109°W / 50.4449; -4.48109
Grid referenceSX239635
ManagerGreat Western Railway
Platforms1
Other information
Station codeCOE[1]
ClassificationDfT category F2
Key dates
1901Opened
Passengers
2020/21Decrease 28
2021/22Increase 112
2022/23Increase 120
2023/24Increase 140
2024/25Increase 224
Location
Map
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Coombe Junction Halt railway station serves the villages of Coombe and Lamellion near Liskeard, Cornwall, England. It is situated on the Looe Valley Line between Liskeard and St Keyne Wishing Well Halt, 6 miles 44 chains (10.5 km) from the terminus at Looe. All trains on this line have to reverse at Coombe Junction, but very few continue the short distance into the platform to allow passengers to alight or join the train.[2]

It is the least used station in Cornwall, and one of the least used in the whole of the United Kingdom. It opened in 1901 and is now managed by Great Western Railway, who operate all services.

History

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A 1905 Railway Clearing House Junction Diagram showing (lower right) railways in the vicinity of Coombe Junction

The Liskeard and Looe Railway was opened on 27 December 1860 to carry goods traffic. It had an end-on junction with the Liskeard and Caradon Railway at Moorswater which served quarries in the hills above Liskeard. Passenger trains started to run from Moorswater to Looe on 11 September 1879.[3]

There was no station at Coombe at first, but from 1896 trains would call to set down passengers going to Liskeard if they notified the guard. This allowed them to go up the steep road from Coombe to the station which was a considerably shorter route than the road from Moorswater through Liskeard. It is not recorded if a platform was provided for them at Coombe.[4]

The connecting line up to Liskeard opened for goods traffic on 25 February 1901. Passenger trains started to use this line on 8 May 1901 but continued to call at Moorswater for another week until the station at Coombe Junction was opened on 15 May 1901.[5][6][7] All trains called at what is now Coombe Junction station while the locomotive ran around to the south end of the train to continue the journey.[8]

Closure of the station was planned in 1966 but was reprieved by then-Minister for Transport Barbara Castle.[9]

Naming

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It is one of the only two stations in the National Rail Timetable to have the suffix 'halt' (the other being nearby St Keyne Wishing Well Halt).[10] Although opened as Coombe Junction halt, the term 'halt' was removed from British Rail timetables and station signs and other official documents by 1968 (in addition to "junction"), so that the station became known mononymously as Coombe; the return of the terms came only for these two stations on 18 May 2008.[11]

The station was shown on tickets in 2011 as 'Coombe Cornwall'.[12]

Description

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The station is 6 miles 44 chains (10.5 km) from Looe.[note 1] It has a single platform on the east side of the track.[13] It has relatively few passenger facilities: only a concrete shelter and a help point.[14][4]

All trains between Liskeard and Looe have to reverse at Coombe Junction, but very few continue the short distance into the platform to allow passengers to alight or join the train.[4][15]

Signalling

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Coombe Number 2 Ground Frame hut and lever

Coombe Junction signal box was situated on the west side of the line between the platform and the level crossing near the junction. It had 26 levers including 6 spares when it opened in 1901. The lever frame was replaced in 1956 but still had 26 levers.[16] The signal box was closed in 1981.[17]

The points are now worked by the guard of the train using two ground frames on the east side of the line.[17] Number 1 Ground Frame is at the junction south of the station, 10 chains (200 m) from the platform mid point and 1 ch (20 m) from the junction itself. This is used every time a train arrives from or departs for Looe. Number 2 Ground Frame is 34 ch (680 m) from Number 1, just beyond the platform, and controls entry and exit on the line to Moorswater.[13]

Passenger volume

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The station is the least used in Cornwall[18] As a result of the low patronage, events have taken place to artificially increase the station's usage figures, such as on 14 May 2016 when 108 people boarded at the station for Liskeard.[19][20] and often appears in the list of least used train stations of Great Britain.[21][22]

Entrances and exits recorded each year up to 2016 were generally fewer than 100, but since then have sometimes exceeded 200. During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom they dropped to just 28 but returned to pre-COVID levels by 2024–2025.[23]

Passengers by year[23]
Year[note 2] Entries and exits
2004–2005 96
2005–2006 59
2006–2007 32
2007–2008 54
2008–2009 118
2009–2010 42
2010–2011 38
2011–2012 60
2012–2013 48
2013–2014 42
2014–2015 26
2015–2016 48
2016–2017 212
2017–2018 156
2018–2019 204
2019–2020 188
2020–2021 28
2021–2022 112
2022–2023 120
2023–2024 140
2024–2025 224

Services

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Liskeard and
Coombe Junction stations
Legend
Liskeard and Caradon Railway
 Moorswater
 Liskeard
Cornish Main Line
 Coombe Junction Halt
Coombe Junction
Looe Valley Line

Coombe is served by just two trains a day in each direction Monday to Saturday, one in the morning and one mid-afternoon, but there is no Sunday service. Trains are scheduled to take 9 minutes to reach Liskeard and 25 minutes to Looe.[24]

There were more trains in the past as locomotives had to run round their trains to continue the journey to Looe or Liskeard. For example, in 1909 there were four trains each way Monday to Friday, three on Saturday and two on Sunday. The journey time to Liskeard was 8 minutes and to Looe took 24 minutes.[25] In later years the first train on Saturdays was advertised as 'non stop' for passengers but it still had to stop in the platform to run round the carriages. The 1938 and 1958 timetables had eight trains calling at Coombe Junction Monday to Friday, nine on Saturdays and six on Sundays.[26][27]

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Reverses direction Great Western Railway Liskeard
Terminus
St Keyne Wishing Well Halt
towards Looe

Community rail

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The railway between Liskeard and Looe is designated as a community rail line and is supported by marketing provided by the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership. The line is promoted under the 'Looe Valley Line' name.[28][24]

Notes

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  1. ↑ The official mileage at Coombe Junction is 6 miles 63 chains but this is measured from the original site of the station at Looe before it was moved 19 chains closer to Coombe.
  2. ↑ The passenger volume data covers twelve month periods that start in April.

References

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  1. ↑ "Railway Codes". railwaycodes.org.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  2. ↑ "Coombe Junction Halt named region's least used railway station". The Cornish Times. 18 December 2024. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  3. ↑ Beale, Gerry (2000). The Liskeard and Looe Branch. Wild Swan Publications. pp. 5–9. ISBN 1-874103-47-X.
  4. 1 2 3 Oakley, Mike (2009). Cornwall Railway Stations. Dovecote Press. pp. 33–34. ISBN 978-1-904-34968-6.
  5. ↑ Beale 2000, p. 172.
  6. ↑ Clinker, C.R. (1963). The Railways of Cornwall 1809–1963. Dawlish: David & Charles. p. 20.
  7. ↑ Oakley 2009, pp. 76–77.
  8. ↑ "Looe branch including Moorswater". Cornwall Railway Society. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  9. ↑ Caton, Peter (2018). Remote Stations. Matador. pp. 144–145. ISBN 978-1-78901-408-2.
  10. ↑ "National Rail Enquiries -". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  11. ↑ Quick, Michael (2023). Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain: A Chronology (PDF) (5th ed.). Railway and Canal Historical Society. p. 143.
  12. ↑ "Coombe Junction - passenger numbers and platform facilities - ongoing discussion". www.firstgreatwestern.info. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  13. 1 2 Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (2023). Railway Track Diagrams; 3: Western & Wales (7th ed.). Frome: TRACKmaps. Diag. 10. ISBN 978 1999627164.
  14. ↑ "Coombe Junction Halt Train Station". www.gwr.com. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  15. ↑ "Coombe Junction Halt named region's least used railway station". The Cornish Times. 18 December 2024. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  16. ↑ Beale 2000, pp. 98–113.
  17. 1 2 Beale 2000, p. 202.
  18. ↑ Butler, Christine (2024). "South West's loneliest station had 140 passengers in a year". BBC News. Retrieved 14 July 2026.
  19. ↑ Butler, Jackie (2022). "When a cunning plan boosted passenger numbers at Cornwall's loneliest little railway station". www.cornwalllive.com. Retrieved 12 September 2026.
  20. ↑ Caton 2018, pp. 144–5.
  21. ↑ Roberts, Stephen (2022). "Top of the stops: our least used stations". Rail (magazine). No. 949 (January-February). pp. 56–61.
  22. ↑ "Revealed: Britain's busiest and quietest stations". BBC News. BBC. 2015. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  23. 1 2 "Table 1415: Time series of passenger entries and exits and interchanges by station". Estimates of station usage. Office of Road and Rail. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  24. 1 2 "K2 Train times 7 September to 12 December 2026" (PDF). Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  25. ↑ Bennett, Alan (1990). The Great Western Railway in East Cornwall. Runpast Publishing. p. 58. ISBN 1-870754-11-5.
  26. ↑ Beale 2000, p. 215.
  27. ↑ Vaughan, John (2002). Branches & Byways: Cornwall. Oxford Publishing Company. p. 68. ISBN 0-86093-566-3.
  28. ↑ Salvenson, Paul (2012). "The Tamar Valley Line". Today's Railways. No. 122 (February). pp. 40–45.

Further reading

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  • Cooke, R. A. (1977). Track Layout Diagrams of the GWR and BR WR, Section 11: East Cornwall. Harwell: R. A. Cooke.
  • MacDermot, E. T. (1931). History of the Great Western Railway, volume II 1863-1921. London: Great Western Railway.
  • Messenger, Michael (2001). Caradon & Looe: the Canal, Railways and Mines. Truro: Twelveheads Press. ISBN 0-906294-46-0.
  • Tolson, J. M.; Roose, G.; Whetmath, C. F. D. (1974). Railways of Looe and Caradon. Bracknell: Forge Books.
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