Cornish Main Line
The Cornish Main Line (Cornish: Penn-hyns-horn Kernow) is a railway line in Cornwall and Devon in the United Kingdom. It runs from Penzance to Plymouth, crossing from Cornwall into Devon over the famous Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash.
| Cornish Main Line | |||
|---|---|---|---|
The Royal Albert Bridge crossing the River Tamar | |||
| Overview | |||
| Native name | Penn-hyns-horn Kernow | ||
| Status | Operational | ||
| Owner | Network Rail | ||
| Locale | Cornwall, United Kingdom | ||
| Termini | |||
| Service | |||
| Type | Heavy rail | ||
| System | National Rail | ||
| Operator(s) | Great Western Railway CrossCountry (Freight: DB Schenker and Freightliner) | ||
| History | |||
| Opened | 1867 | ||
| Technical | |||
| Line length | 79.5 miles (128 km) | ||
| Number of tracks | Double with three single track sections | ||
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge | ||
| Old gauge | 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) Brunel gauge | ||
| Operating speed | 75 mph (121 km/h) maximum | ||
| |||
It directly serves Truro, St Austell, Bodmin (by a Parkway station) and Liskeard. It forms the backbone for rail services in Cornwall and there are branches off it which serve St Ives, Falmouth, Newquay and Looe. The main line also carries direct trains to and from London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Newcastle and Edinburgh.
It is the southernmost railway line in the United Kingdom and the westernmost in England.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.