Fastest€33.34
- South Western Railway SW599106:221h 38m08:00Reading StationExeter Central
Door to door 2h 22mCO2 6.8 kgChanges 0Refundable
Reading to Exeter train
Trains from Reading to Exeter start at €29.49 and take 2h 22m at their fastest.
The Trains from Reading to Exeter starts at €29.49 and takes 2h 22m door to door, run by 1 operator over 206 km, with around 3 departures a day. Fares bottom out about 90 days before departure.
- 2h 22mDoor to door
- 1h 38mMoving
- €29.49From
- 6.8 kgCO2
The cheapest and the fastest on 23 September 2026
Two journeys we can sell today, with the service number each operator files them under.
Train operators
Speed, flexibility and what is on board. Nothing here is a rating, because we have not earned one.
| Operator | From | Fastest | Typical speed | Flexibility | On board |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 South Western Railway | €26.74 | 2h 12m | 140 km/h | Refundable | Power sockets, Wi-Fi |
The train gets you into Exeter. It does not get you a bed, and neither do we.
Where to sleep in Exeter
Sort by distance from Exeter Central and you can see which places are ten minutes on foot and which are not.
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When to book Reading to Exeter
The same search run across the whole booking window, so the shape of the curve is visible rather than described.
- €14.6490 days
- €15.1960 days
- €14.6445 days
- €17.3930 days
- €16.8421 days
- €19.0414 days
- €23.447 days
- €34.993 days
- €37.191 days
- Cheapest lead time
- Fares bottom out around 90 days ahead, at €14.64.
- How much it moves
- The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time is 154 percent. The dearest point is €37.19, 1 days out.
- What that means
- Today sits inside the cheap window, which closes about 90 days before departure. Waiting from here has usually cost money on this corridor rather than saved it.
Which departure day costs least
Median cheapest fare for each weekday, taken across the next three weeks of real prices.
- €23.99Sun
- €19.59Mon
- €19.04Tue
- €22.33Wed
- €23.44Thu
- €21.79Fri
- €25.09Sat
Where you leave from and where you arrive
The stations, airports and ports each mode on this corridor actually uses.
Reading
Rail
- Reading Station
- Winnersh Station
- Reading West
Exeter
Rail
- Exeter Central
- Exeter Central railway station
- Exeter St Davids railway station
What the journey actually looks like
Direct or connecting, how far the route really runs, and what happens when a connection is missed.
- Direct or connecting
- 33% of the services we sell on this corridor run through without a change. The remaining 67% involve one connection.
- How far it really runs
- The route covers 206 km against 196 km in a straight line, a detour of 5 percent. Track and road geometry account for the difference.
- Where the change is
- Connections are made at Poole, Didcot, Bristol, Weymouth. The gap between arriving and leaving is 46 minutes, of which about 5 is walking.
- If the connection is missed
- The tightest connection we sell here has a 20 percent chance of not being made on the timetable alone. Part of this journey is a self transfer between separate tickets, so leave more time than the minimum and expect to check in again.
- First and last departure
- The first service of the day leaves Reading at 06:22 and the last at 07:30, across 3 departures. The return direction keeps its own timetable, so the times back are not these times reversed.
Trains against the other ways to make this journey
The same corridor, door to door, with every mode that runs it.
| Mode | Door to door | Moving | At the ends | From | CO2 | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Train | 2h 22m | 1h 38m | 44m | €29.49 | 6.8 kg | 3 |
| Ferry | 7h 39m | 6h 9m | 1h 30m | €19.04 | 23.7 kg | 3 |
Questions about Reading to Exeter
The questions people actually ask about this journey, answered from the same prices and times the page above is built on rather than written once and left to go stale.
How long does the Train from Reading to Exeter take?
The Train from Reading to Exeter takes 2h 22m door to door, of which 1h 38m is spent moving. The route runs 206 km. The difference between the two times is reaching the terminal and leaving it at the far end, which every time on this page includes.
How much does the Train from Reading to Exeter cost?
The Train from Reading to Exeter starts at €29.49 for one passenger, checked on 23 September 2026. A typical fare is €28.39. Both are the total including taxes, supplier fees and our service fee, so the price here is the price at checkout.
Who runs the Train from Reading to Exeter?
1 operators run the Train from Reading to Exeter: South Western Railway. Between them they file around 3 departures a day. The operator table on this page compares them on fare, journey time, cruising speed, fare conditions and what is provided on board.
Which terminal does the Train from Reading to Exeter use?
The Train from Reading to Exeter leaves from Reading Station and arrives at Exeter Central. Allow about 44m for reaching the departure terminal and leaving the arrival one. That time is already inside every door to door figure quoted on this page.
Is the Train the best way from Reading to Exeter?
Travelling from Reading to Exeter by Ferry costs €19.04 and takes 7h 39m door to door, against 2h 22m by Train. Which is better depends on whether the money or the hours matter more on this trip. The comparison table on this page shows every mode side by side.
When should I book the Train from Reading to Exeter?
Fares for the Train from Reading to Exeter bottom out around 90 days ahead, at €14.64. The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time across the window is 154 percent, measured on 23 September 2026. Booking inside the final week has consistently cost more.
How much CO2 does the Train from Reading to Exeter produce?
The Train from Reading to Exeter produces about 6.8 kg of CO2 per passenger over 206 km, which works out at roughly 33 grams per passenger kilometre. That figure is for the whole journey and for one traveller, not for the vehicle.
What is provided on board the Train from Reading to Exeter?
Operators on the Train from Reading to Exeter publish Power sockets, Wi-Fi. That is what 1 carriers on this corridor state about their own fleets, across a journey of 2h 22m door to door. Where a carrier publishes nothing, this page lists nothing for it.
Where these numbers come from
Derived from service area No carrier record names this exact pair. The operators listed publish a service area covering both places at a distance their mode plausibly carries people, which is evidence that the corridor is served and not evidence of a specific service. Pages state which, because presenting the two as the same thing would be dishonest.
Schedules, seat counts and fares are generated by our own model until the supplier contracts are signed. Places, coordinates, operators, which operator serves which pair, and every distance are real. We would rather say that on every page than let a modelled number pass for a filed one.
Defined in full at Door to door, Fares, The booking window, Carbon
- On this page
- Every figure above was computed for Reading to Exeter on 8 September 2026: 206 km of route against 196 km in a straight line, 3 services a day, 1 operators, a cheapest fare of €29.49, and 2h 22m door to door on the fastest mode. The return direction is computed separately and its numbers are not these numbers.
Related journeys
Exeter to Reading trainCompare every mode from Reading to ExeterReading to Exeter ferryBournemouth to Exeter trainBrighton to Exeter trainBristol to Exeter trainCardiff to Exeter trainCity of Westminster to Exeter trainCrawley to Exeter trainCroydon to Exeter trainBournemouth to Exeter trainBrighton to Exeter trainBristol to Exeter trainCardiff to Exeter trainCity of Westminster to Exeter train
The train is the simple part. What you do once you are in Exeter is somebody else's catalogue.
Things to do in Exeter
Day trips that leave Exeter in the morning and cover a good part of United Kingdom by evening.
See Exeter on GetYourGuideOr browse Viator
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