Barnstaple railway station is the northern terminus of the Tarka Line and serves the town of Barnstaple, Devon. It is from at milepost 211.25 from . It is managed by Great Western Railway, which also operates the train service. It opened in 1854 but from 1874 until 1970 it was known as Barnstaple Junction railway station as it was the junction between lines to , , and Exeter. History The Taw Vale Railway & Dock opened a railway to carry goods traffic between a quay at Fremington Pill and Barnstaple in August 1848. William Thorne, who worked the horse-drawn trains, built a warehouse at the terminus in Barnstaple which was by the Sticklepath turnpike gate and the bridge across the River Taw. On 1 August 1854 the North Devon Railway (as the Taw Vale was now known) opened a gauge line from where it linked with the Exeter and Crediton Railway. The traffic on the original line between Barnstaple and Fremington had ceased in 1851 and this line was now rebuilt to the North Devon's broad gauge, reopening as part of the route to on 2 November 1855. The North Devon Railway was amalgamated into the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) on 1 January 1865 by which time the LSWR had already laid a third rail from Exeter to Bideford so that its gauge trains could use the line. A single platform on the river side of the line served passengers. A goods yard was laid out between the passenger station and the river which included a goods shed behind the platform and William Thorne's old warehouse. A second platform was added on 20 July 1874 when the Ilfracombe Branch Line opened. This included a new station at on the other side of the river so the original 'Barnstaple' station was renamed Barnstaple Junction. Three years later, on 30 April 1877, the LSWR ceased operating broad gauge trains to Barnstaple. The Devon and Somerset Railway had opened its own station in Barnstaple at Victoria Road in 1873 but from 1876 this was operated by the Great Western Railway (GWR). A connection was opened between the GWR station and the LSWR at Barnstaple Junction on 1 June 1887. This crossed the river on its own bridge and joined the LSWR line south of the Junction station. Some GWR trains continued beyond Barnstaple to In 1891 a second track was brought