The British Railway Station Where You Can Only Travel By Boat

The historic maritime town of Dartmouth does not have a railway. It has never had a railway. But despite all that, it has a railway station. It's been there for nearly 160 years and it still hasn't seen a single train. So how does it work? I went to the gorgeous south Devon coast to find out more...

IMAGE CREDITS
Collett GWR 0-6-0PT Steam Locomotive by Charlie Jackson -

[andrewsebastianrothgarnant]

I don't know about any other stations without a railway, but I do know about a former airport without any planes or runways. From 1984 to 2000 the Swedish city of Malmö used to have a second airport located at the harbour near the Central railway station. The airport was just a terminal equipped with check-in facilities, a duty free shop, a lounge for first class passengers etc. just like any other airport terminal. Instead of serving flights the airport served SAS-Scandinavian Airlines's Hovercraft/catamaran service between Malmö and Copenhagen Airport for connections onwards on the SAS network. The Hovercraft/catamaran service would operate as a flight, with a flight number, flight attendants and even Business Class and Economy Class seating. The terminal building is still there today but it's sadly abandoned

[ZGryphon]

Upon reflection, the "BEWARE OF TRAINS" sign at this station isn't ironic at all. Moreso than at any other station, if you see a train there, something has gone _terribly_ wrong.

[reknakfarg]

The Amur–Yakutsk Mainline is a 1213km long railway in russia that stops on the wrong side of the river from the city of Yakutz (a city of about 300thousand) Which means a ferry ride during summer to do the rest of your journey or in winter you can get a bus over the ice. A good few months of the year when the ice is too thick for the ferry but too thin for the iceroad a helicopter is used!

[marktownend]

If the line had crossed the river to reach Dartmouth, the Admiralty would have demanded a huge vertical clearance for their 19th century sailing ships to pass under, like Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge over the Tamar at Saltash. The trainless station as it is in the current very central position could never have hosted trains as the route to get there would have cut off access to the inner harbour and wharves, and possibly required quite a bit of the historic town to be demolished. The alternative site would probably have been quite a bit further upstream and at a higher level near Britannia Naval College, so not so convenient for visitors really. The boat solution is very elegant and convenient really with a high combined frequency of local authority lower vehicle ferry (also carries walk on passengers) and the dedicated passenger ferry run by the rail company. Single passenger fares on each are the same but as usual in UK there's no interavailability for returns or multitrips. When the private Dart Valley Railway took over the line from BR in 1973, they inherited a local authority contract for school transport to Churston Grammar, so for the first year or two pupils from Paignton and Dartmouth rode steam trains to school, and the railway had to operate all year round in term time. Eventually local bus companies took over the contract.

[jozg]

Despite it having no trains, the station master at Dartmouth was always a senior (and better-paid) position than his colleague at the 'proper' station across the river at Kingswear. Because such things were determined by the passenger and parcels/baggage traffic levels, and since the railway offered through tickets (via the ferry) to Dartmouth, Dartmouth was a 'busier' station than Kingswear despite having no platforms, no goods traffic and no trains. This was especially because the station at Dartmouth handled nearly all the passengers, parcels, luggage and VIPs connected with the naval college on that side of the river.

In terms of stations without trains, there is the story of the 'station' at Dalaman in southwestern Turkey. It goes that in the 1900s the Khedive (viceroy) of Egypt, Abbas II, had an estate at Dalaman and wanted to build a hunting lodge there. At the same time he was also overseeing the construction of a new railway station in Alexandria in Egypt and he employed the same French contractors to design and build both buildings. The tale goes that the ships with the plans and all the pre-prepared building materials were accidentally sent to the wrong places - the one carrying the stuff for the station went to Dalaman and with the stuff for Abbas' hunting lodge went to Egypt, where the French overseers dutifully hired local workers and built what the plans they had said to build with the materials delivered. So outside Dalaman is a railway station 120 miles from the nearest railway station, while in Alexandria is a station that was intended as a nobleman's summer residence. I'd love to know how true that story is (or isn't) - it seems unlikely in so many ways yet also strangely plausible. Especially since the building that still stands outside Dalaman certainly looks like a 1900s railway station, while you could easily imagine the station building in Alexandria also being Abbas' mountain retreat. The building in Turkey is officially called 'Dalaman train station' and is something of a tourist attraction, so at some level the story has official backing, at least!

[WhyFi]

This exact situation happened with the Terreiro do Paço station in Lisbon, Portugal. The river Tejo was technically difficult/impossible to cross with existing technology of the time, so that station, despite being built as part of the national rail network and being operated by the national railway company, CP, never saw any trains, only boats departing towards the city of Barreiro on the southern shore of the river, where the trains bound south could be taken. About 60 years later, the rail line crossing the river at the 25th of April Bridge was finally opened, allowing for direct crossing of trains to the south regions of the country. The boats and the old line remain open as a commuter service, but the boats are no longer operated by the railway company.

[JagoHazzard]

I love Dartmouth. Last time I was there, we hired a boat and my mate Ruairi tried to ram a yacht. Good times.

[screetchycello]

Me, an American: haha silly Tim, I've heard of Dartmouth too! That's a university!

Me, 20 seconds later, learning there's a River Dart and the town sits at the mouth of the river: wait what hang on

[ChristofferETJ]

Oh, that's quite interesting, was my first thought. An hour later, I realise that we have the same arrangement on my island of Bornholm (Denmark). You can in fact buy a ticket from any railway station in Denmark to the practically rail-free Bornholm. Currently, you do have to change trains in Sweden to reach the fast ferry.
There is even a former railway station on the harbour in Rønne on Bornholm fairly close to the ferry terminal.

[MiceAndMinecraft]

Yet again a reminder of just how much I appreciate you including wheelchair access information in all your videos. Thank you ❤️♿️

[anothorestes]

How delightful to hear the Fawlty Towers theme when you mentioned Torbay!

[MucusArt]

As a wheelchair user and traveler myself, thank you so much for putting accessibility notes in your videos! They're very much appreciated.

[michaelandannfear]

Tim
Thanks for posting your video of Dartmouth railway station. If your video was filmed on the 20th July I was on the footplate of 75014 (the 11.50 to Paignton). It was a 2 year covid delayed 70th birthday present from my sister-in-law and her partner. I found out that my wife had been speaking to your mum and dad on the way to Paignton and they wished me a happy birthday on our arrival. By coincidence we were all in the same carriage coming back from Dartmouth and your mum gave me a little card wishing me all the best and an introduction to your posts, which I have recently viewed and thoroughly enjoyed. Keep up the good (and interesting) work. Watch out Paul and Rebecca Whitewick!!

[laurencegale]

I went to secondary school in Dartmouth. In order to get there I has to get to the town bus stop to get a coach to Kingswear, ferry across the Dart and then a double decker up to the top of town.

I can say that in the middle of winter whilst stood on the pontoon shivering sufficiently enough to open a dimensional doorway, I was cursing whoever had sent me there.

Summer was nice though, apart from the time Roman Abramavich parked his superyaught right in the middle of the ferry route.

[animefreak]

In Croatia we have the rail line between Rijeka and Lupoglav. While both stations have trains, there are no tracks between them and there never was. The railway network of the Istrian peninsula is completely disconnected from the rest of the network. During Yugoslavia this wasn't that much of a problem as you could always just go through Slovenia, but now it is a problem. So the railway authorities created a fictitious railway line for the purpose of ticket sales and you will be transported over (or, rather, under) the Učka mountain by a "replacement" bus.
As an additional fun fact, the rail line between Metković and Ploče in the far south of the country is also completely disconnected from the rest of the national network, so the Croatian railway network is made out of three disjoint chunks.

[CanuckJim]

When I was younger, taking the train from Halifax, Nova Scota to Quebec City meant getting off the train in Levis - across the St Lawrence River from Quebec City - at 5am and taking a ferry over. Quebec City had a train station but it was small and limited to local trains on that side of the river. It was deemed too expensive to build a bridge for the train traffic. Flash forward to modern times: A bridge is now used and the train arrives at Levis, crosses the bridge to Quebec City and, due to track configuration on that side, the train then spends close to 20min as it runs BACKWARDS across the bridge and then continues on its way to Montreal on the original track.

[andreasmadera]

When you got to the ferry 'I'm on a boat' by The Lonely Island came to mind and you used it. Travel, trains, and novelty rap. Can't ask for more!

[gorkyshaw]

2:09 Just love how the Fawlty Towers music starts playing in the background when Torbay appears

[fishflake]

In the US, Amtrak services to “San Francisco” actually terminate at Emeryville, on the opposite side of San Francisco Bay. Amtrak has buses to take passengers to the city proper (or they can connect to the BART system via local transit).

[johannesk.]

This was quite common. At the Mosel we had the so calls "Saufbähnchen" (best translated as "drinkers train" or so...) because of the possibility to get any vine produced between Bullay, Bernkastel-Kues and Trier, and that are many sorts as anyone who likes vine knows...

Anyway, as the Mosel Valley is very narrow and curvy, there where many stations that where located on the opposite site of the viallges. Some where connected by bridges, but most had a ferry running between the village and the train station. There are some nice videos here on YouTube, just search for "Saufbähnchen". The track was closed and removed in the 1960s, so only a few meters of track are left in Bullay. Oh, and many villages with a "Bahnhofstraße" and no train any where in the vicinity...