It is 193 miles 72 chains (193.90 mi; 312.1 km) from the zero point at London Paddington,[1] from where trains travel through Exeter to Plymouth and Penzance.

The station is also served by trains from London Waterloo via Salisbury and long distance services to Bristol Temple Meads, Birmingham New Street, Edinburgh Waverley and other places in the North.

The SDR was designed to be worked by atmospheric power and an engine house was built on the banks of the river near the locomotive shed.

All these railways were built to the 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad gauge, but on 1 February 1862, the 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) gauge London and South Western Railway (LSWR) brought a line into the station from their own central station in Queen Street.

These buildings were all designed by Francis Fox, the B&ER engineer, and Henry Lloyd[5] and the work was completed in 1864.

[6] A second island platform was provided on the west side and this entailed the goods shed being narrowed from two tracks to one at their southern end.

[8] The main passenger footbridge has many paintings resembling frescoes and depicting romantic versions of rail travel.

The station entrance is on the east side of the line, facing the city centre which is about a 15 minutes walk along well-signposted routes.

This line curves eastwards and climbs steeply to cross a small viaduct before entering a tunnel beneath the city; the main line instead stays on the level and crosses both the River Exe and the city's flood defence channel before curving gently out of sight.The entrance is on platform 1, which is mainly used for trains to and from Exeter Central and Barnstaple.

Various local services use platform 6 as do trains from Paddington or the North that terminate at Exeter then return northwards.

[9] However, there is also a service operated by South Western Railway on the West of England Line to London Waterloo via Salisbury and Basingstoke.

Great Western Railway also runs services to Cardiff Central via Bristol Temple Meads, approximately hourly in the mornings and reducing in frequency throughout the day.

Further long-distance services are operated by CrossCountry to Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Sheffield, Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Bus services from the station, operated by Stagecoach South West, include destinations throughout the city, plus Okehampton, Tiverton, Crediton, Bideford and Barnstaple.