Observer by Robin Mckie

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From the paper

The rail line from St Erth to St Ives is one of Britain's finest. Its tracks hug the cliffs that loom over the sands of Carbis Bay. In the early spring, Atlantic rollers pound the beach while gulls strut in rain-spattered tidal pools.

It is a breathtaking journey – with a flaw. It is over so quickly. The St Ives diesel railcar takes only 17 minutes to cover the line's four miles. Have a lengthy text chat and you will miss it.

And that would be unfortunate – for travellers should relish each mile of this railway gem. Fifty years ago this month, the little Cornish branch line was earmarked for closure as part of a railway restructuring that has become a byword for managerial savagery: the Beeching cuts.

The article http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/02/beeching-wrong-about-britains-railways is headed
How Beeching got it wrong about Britain's railways


Worth a read perhaps if only to see the pictures in the embedded Youtube clip

 

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Maybe this was posted for me to bite!

You can walk alongside the track from just before Lelant Saltings all the way to St. Ives station and get equal views from the walk as from the train, and you can text to your hearts delight and take stunning photo's too. Take the ride into St. Ives and walk back to St Erth is the way I recommend.

I remember walking home from School in St. Ives along the footpath back home to Lelant as I'd spent my train/bus fare on sweets in St. Ives, and can just remember the steam trains along the line too.

Just beware the nudists in the dunes at Porthkidney Sand Dunes in the summer the other side of the line from the West Cornwall Golf Club, unless you are interested in such people.

This coastal path is part of the wonderful 400+ mile Southwest coastal footpath from Minehead through to Lands End and back to Poole Harbour.