access to the cycle and footpath along the disused railway towards Bideford which forms part of the South West Coast Path. The access road to the station goes through a retail park which is built on the site of the railway goods yard. The old stone building by the A3125 road is William Thorne's warehouse of 1848 which is now Grade II listed. The station building contains the ticket office, toilets, café and a cycle hire office. The platform is long enough for an 11-coach train. There is just a single track in use (the second platform is derelict) but there is a siding with a loop line just south of the platform. The ticket office is usually open every day and a ticket machine is also provided. There is both a car park and bicycle rack. Services All services at Barnstaple are operated by Great Western Railway. There is generally one train per hour to but a very small number of services continue to or from other routes in East Devon on weekdays. The route mainly uses the diesel units. Community railway The railway between Barnstaple and Exeter is designated as a community railway and is supported by marketing provided by the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership. The line is promoted as the Tarka Line. Proposed developments The Barnstaple to Bideford route was mentioned in the Association of Train Operating Companies 2009 Connecting Communities: Expanding Access to the Rail Network report which recommended some closed lines that could be rebuilt to restore railway services to large communities. Following from the reopening of the Dartmoor line to in 2021, a local 'Atlantic Coast to Exeter' campaign resumed interest in reopening the line from Barnstaple to Bideford. Cultural references The Guardian included the Barnstaple station café in its 2009 list of 'the ten best station cafés'. This line to Bideford was recreated in miniature for one day in 2009 using OO gauge track for episode 6 of James May's Toy Stories, an attempt to build the longest ever model railway orchestrated by James May. Although the track was restored between the two towns the model railway trains were only able to reach the site of Instow signalbox due to the weather and vandalism. May stated that he chose the location for the attempt due to his desire to see the line restored. He repeated the experiment more successfully in 2011. References