Getting to Keswick when the trains stop at Penrith

Keswick has had no trains since 4 March 1972, when, the National Park Authority records, the last one left the station on the line from Penrith. The station building is still there by the leisure centre, but it is the start of a footpath now. Every journey by rail ends at Penrith and finishes on a bus.

Penrith (North Lakes)

Penrith is on the West Coast Main Line, and its station goes by Penrith (North Lakes) on the timetables; the code is PNR. Keswick Tourism Association puts it at 17 miles from Keswick. Measured, it is about 25 kilometres in a straight line and 29 by road, which a car does in under half an hour on the A66 when the road is clear.

The X4 and the X5

Stagecoach's X4 and X5 both run from Penrith bus station, through the railway station, to Keswick and on to Cockermouth and Workington. You do not need to walk into town to catch one. The stop is called Penrith, o/s Rail Station on the timetable, and it is about 45 metres from the station building.

On the timetable for Friday 16 October 2026 the X5 left that stop at ten minutes to the hour through the day and reached Keswick bus station 40 minutes later; the X4 left at twenty past and took a couple of minutes longer. Between them that is a bus roughly every half hour in the daytime. The X5 goes via Threlkeld, and stops on the A66 for Portinscale and in Braithwaite and Thornthwaite beyond Keswick; the X4 goes via Bassenthwaite village, the Castle Inn and the Lakes Distillery. Both end up in Workington.

Two cautions. First, timetables change with the seasons: Keswick Tourism Association's page describes the summer timetable as running from April to the end of October 2026, so look up the winter times before relying on a late bus. Second, Keswick Tourism Association says taxis from Keswick will meet trains at Penrith by prior arrangement, which is the fallback for a late arrival.

Arriving in Keswick

The buses stop at Keswick bus station on The Headlands, next to Booths. From there the Moot Hall is about 300 metres away. Most of the town's hotels and pubs are within ten minutes on foot, and Lake Road takes you down to the boat landings.

From the south: the 555

If you come up through the Lakes, the 555 runs between Lancaster and Keswick via Kendal, Windermere railway station, Ambleside and Grasmere. It is the way to reach Keswick from a station in the south Lakes without going round by Penrith.

Driving and parking

By car, Keswick is off junction 40 of the M6 at Penrith and west along the A66. Keswick Tourism Association reckons about two hours from Manchester by motorway and about five and a half from London. Its own suggestion for a scenic route from the south is to leave the M6 at junction 36 and take the A591 through Windermere, Ambleside and Grasmere.

The council car parks are pay and display. Central is the big long-stay one, with 334 spaces, close to the Market Square. Lakeside, with 253, is down by the theatre and the boat landings. Otley Road is the smaller long stay by the brewery. Bell Close, behind Main Street, is short stay with a two-hour maximum. When read on 16 October 2026 the long-stay tariff ran from £3.70 for up to two hours to £12.20 for 24 hours.

For a day on the lake, Keswick Rugby Club on Crow Park Road runs a Park and Sail car park: £6 a day on the tarmac by the clubhouse or £5 on the gravel beside the pitch, paid on exit, and a voucher that takes 15% off the launch that day for the driver and up to four passengers.

Once you are here

You do not need a car in Keswick itself. The 78 bus runs down Borrowdale to Seatoller, the launch goes round the lake, the X5 drops you in Threlkeld for a walk back along the old railway, and Castlerigg is about half an hour on foot. Two places where a car makes life harder rather than easier: the roadside parking for Catbells near Hawes End, which fills very early, and the limited spaces at Castlerigg, where English Heritage asks visitors to think about public transport.