Getting to Dartmouth: Totnes station, the 7 bus and the steam train

Dartmouth has no National Rail station. There are two sensible ways in without a car, and which one you choose depends on the day of the week and how much of the river you want to see on the way.

The quick way: Totnes and the 7 bus

The nearest station is Totnes, code TOT, on Great Western Railway's main line between Exeter and Plymouth. Trains from London Paddington stop there. Totnes is about 12km from Dartmouth in a straight line and roughly 22km by road.

The bus is Stagecoach's number 7, which runs from Exeter through Newton Abbot and Totnes to Dartmouth. The useful thing is where it stops: Totnes Rail Station Forecourt (Stop A), right outside the station, so there is no walk into town with your bags. From there it takes about 38 minutes to Dartmouth Pontoon (Stop A) on the Embankment, which is the middle of town, a few steps from the ferries and the Boat Float.

On the timetable read on 16 October 2026 the 7 ran roughly hourly in the daytime from Monday to Saturday, and the last weekday bus from Totnes station to Dartmouth left at 19.09. Sunday is the problem. That day there were only two buses each way: from Totnes station at 11.28 and 16.29, and back from Dartmouth at 12.15 and 17.15. If you arrive on a Sunday evening, book a taxi from Totnes in advance or plan to arrive earlier.

The scenic way: Paignton, the steam train and the ferry

The other route comes in from the far side of the river. Paignton station, code PGN, is served by Great Western Railway, and in Paignton Queen's Park station is the start of the Dartmouth Steam Railway, a heritage line that runs along the Torbay coast and up the east bank of the Dart to Kingswear, the village directly opposite Dartmouth. The operator puts the train at about 25 to 30 minutes.

At Kingswear you walk down to the passenger ferry, which crosses to Dartmouth in about five minutes and runs roughly every 15 minutes. A steam train ticket includes the ferry. The operator asks you to allow 30 minutes for the connection on each side of the river, and that is good advice when the ferry queue is long in August.

Two cautions. Kingswear is a station on the heritage line only, so a journey planner will not sell you a ticket there. And the steam railway does not run every day all year: on the operator's timetable read on 17 October 2026 the daily trains end on 31 October, and in November and December only the Christmas Train of Lights runs, so check the timetable before you rely on it.

By car

From the A38 between Exeter and Plymouth, the A3122 takes you down into Dartmouth. From Torbay, the A379 reaches the river at Kingswear and you cross on a car ferry: the Higher Ferry by Sandquay, which takes contactless cards only, or the Lower Ferry, which comes in at the bottom of Lower Street. The ferries guide on this site covers both.

The old town was not built for cars. From May to September most of the on-street parking is limited to an hour or two, and the hotels in the centre mostly have no car parks. The answer is the park and ride at the top of the town on the A3122, next to the Health and Wellbeing Centre, with the 91 bus down to Dartmouth Pontoon. In town, Mayor's Avenue is the main pay car park, and South Hams District Council takes payment through PayByPhone. The Old Market car park is free but shuts to cars on market days.

Flying in

Exeter Airport is the nearest, about 57km by road, roughly an hour's drive. Bristol Airport is about 158km away. Neither has a direct public transport link to Dartmouth; from Exeter, the 7 bus runs from Exeter Bus Station through to Dartmouth, and from Bristol the train to Totnes and then the 7 is the way.

The other Dartmouths

Check the country before you book anything. Dartmouth in Nova Scotia sits across the harbour from Halifax, Dartmouth in Massachusetts is on the coast near New Bedford, and Dartmouth College is in New Hampshire. Searches for a Dartmouth museum, a Dartmouth park and ride or a church will happily return all of them. This guide is about the Devon one, postcode TQ6.