Windermere station, at the end of the line from Oxenholme: the walk into the village, the 599 bus to Bowness Pier, tickets, step-free access and parking.
Windermere station is a single platform at the end of the line from Oxenholme, on the high side of the village just off the A591. Northern runs it. The platform is level with the main entrance, so there are no steps between the platform and the street, and Booths supermarket is the building next door. The lake is not here: it lies below the village, at Bowness-on-Windermere, and getting down to it is the next part of most journeys.
The trains themselves are on the route pages, from Oxenholme, London, Manchester, Preston and Liverpool.
The village centre is close and a little downhill. Leave along the station approach past Booths to the junction with the main road, then follow Victoria Street down to where it meets Crescent Road and Main Road, the two streets that hold most of Windermere’s shops and cafés. The walking time is in the station panel on this page.
Bowness-on-Windermere and its piers are further, and the road keeps dropping most of the way to the shore. It is walkable, but with a case or tired children the bus makes more sense, and coming back up the hill at the end of a day on the lake is the harder direction.
Stagecoach’s 599 runs between Bowness and Grasmere and, in Stagecoach’s own words, connects with the mainline station at Windermere. Its timetable lists both Windermere Railway Station and Bowness Pier as stops, and the bus stop is at the station front. Because the route passes through Windermere in both directions, read the front of the bus: one way is Bowness, the other is Ambleside and Grasmere. Stagecoach suggests the 599 to Bowness for a boat hire or a cruise, and Windermere Lake Cruises calls Bowness its busiest pier, with the widest choice of sailings, and the closest pier to Windermere village.
The 555, which Stagecoach runs from Lancaster through Kendal to Keswick, also connects with the station, for Ambleside and Grasmere to the north. The station has a taxi rank too, partly covered and reached over a controlled crossing. Fares, day tickets and the boat connections are set out in the car-free guide.
The ticket office opens 06:40 to 20:45 Monday to Saturday and 11:10 to 20:40 on Sunday, and Northern lists Windermere as staffed part time, with staff help over the same hours. The counter has a low-level section and induction loops. Outside those hours the ticket machines take over; there is space in front of them for a wheelchair and the controls are at a suitable height for wheelchair users. Tickets bought online can be collected at the office or the machines.
Toilets, an accessible toilet and baby changing are open while the ticket office is. National Rail lists no Changing Places toilet. There is a sheltered waiting area with seating, but as of 27 October 2026 National Rail showed the waiting room as closed until further notice. The station sells no food or drink and has no public Wi-Fi.
National Rail puts Windermere in step-free category A: “there is step-free access to all platforms”. It defines category A as step-free access to and between all platforms at all times trains are running, by level access, lifts or ramps built to new-build standards. Here that means one platform, level with the entrance and no lifts at all. Ramps are kept at the station for getting on and off the train.
Passenger Assist can be booked up to two hours before a journey. The meeting points are the ticket office, the seating marked with black and yellow signs in the ticket hall, and the platform, and they work within staffed hours. Outside them National Rail’s advice is to ask the conductor on the train or call customer support. Northern’s assistance helpline, 0800 138 5560 (text relay 18001 0800 138 5560), is open around the clock.
The station car park has 16 spaces and is paid through RingGo, location code 35723. National Rail lists one accessible bay. When this page was checked, Northern gave £8.80 as the daily charge; the tariff board at the Windermere car park is the figure that counts. The parking guide covers the larger car parks in the village and at Bowness.
Windermere has no designated drop-off bay, but National Rail says the station front may be used for setting down. Six cycle stands sit behind the ticket office, uncovered but watched by CCTV, and National Rail lists a cycle hire business next to the station.
Each route has its own page with the day's trains, the changes and a link to times and fares.