Beer Alston station was opened for passengers on 2 June 1890 by the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway as an intermediate station on that company's line from Lydford to Devonport, which - being in effect an extension of the London and South Western Railway's main line from London Waterloo station to Lydford, enabling the LSWR to reach Plymouth independently of the Great Western Railway - was immediately leased to the LSWR. Bere Alston station was 220 miles and 15 chains from Waterloo. The station was originally called Beer Alston after the local Beer family who owned several nearby villages. However, in 1897, the railway authorities of the time decided that this name promoted an unrefined image of the village due to the association with beer, and therefore changed the name to "Bere Alston" in 1898. On 2 March 1908 it became a junction, with the opening of a branch line to Callington Road. The PDSWJR became part of the Southern Railway in 1923 and British Railways on 1 January 1948. The LSWR line from Okehampton to Bere Alston was closed on 6 May 1968, which left just the Gunnislake service running through from Plymouth and reversing at Bere Alston. This had also been threatened with closure, but retained due to the local topography & poor nature of the local road network. The line from Plymouth was reduced to just a single track on 7 September 1970 and the junction changed to allow the train guard to operate the points. On 18 March 2008Devon County Council backed a proposal by developers Kilbride Community Rail to construct 750 houses in Tavistock that includes reopening the line from Bere Alston to a new Tavistock railway station at a cost of £18.5million. There have also been proposals put forward to reopen the entire route through to and as a diversionary/relief route to maintain the rail link between Plymouth and Cornwall and the rest of the UK should the coastal main line via be blocked by bad weather, as was the case in early 2014.
Services
Bere Alston is served by trains on the Tamar Valley Line from to. Connections with main line services can be made at Plymouth. In 2014 there are nine services each way on Mondays to Fridays, eight on Saturdays and five on Sundays.
Community railway
The railway from Plymouth to Gunnislake is designated as a community railway and is supported by marketing provided by the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership. The line is promoted under the "Tamar Valley Line" name. The Edgcumbe Hotel in Bere Alston village is part of the Tamar Valley Line rail ale trail, which is designed to promote the use of the line. The line is also part of the Dartmoor Sunday Rover network of integrated bus and rail routes.
