Film crew hire/Cornwall/Logistics
Shoot logistics in Cornwall. The A30, the sleeper, Newquay airport, the lanes, the tides and the weather.
The trains run from Paddington, the main road is the A30, and the last mile to a Cornish location is often a lane, a field gate and a footpath. On the coast the tide and the fog set more call times than anyone would like. Here’s how we plan around each of them, with the trains, the sleeper, the airport and where the crew sleep. Timetables and figures checked October 2026.
Paddington to Truro · fastest
4 hr 21 min
Night Riviera sleeper · nights a week
6
Parking dispensation · per vehicle
£20 a day
Days of rain a year · Camborne
about 155
On this page
01 By road
The A30, the Tamar and the roads in
Most crews, and every kit van, come by road. From National Highways, Visit Cornwall, Tamar Crossings and Screen Cornwall, checked October 2026.
The A30
Visit Cornwall calls it mostly dual carriageway. The newest stretch, Chiverton to Carland Cross, is 8.7 miles of dual carriageway that opened to traffic on 24 June 2024, at a cost of £330 million.
How long it takes
Visit Cornwall puts London or Birmingham at less than five hours from the heart of Cornwall by car. It warns of heavy traffic in peak season, in the school holidays and at weekends, and says to travel overnight or off peak.
The Tamar
The Tamar Bridge charges eastbound only, into Plymouth: £3 cash for a car, or £1.50 with a TamarTag for cars and vans, at the rates set in May 2025. Screen Cornwall says the bridge is often congested.
Sat-navs
Visit Cornwall warns that sat-navs send drivers down narrow lanes, and says to follow the road signs. We plan the van route on the recce, from the main road to the unit base, and put it on the call sheet.
Kit from upcountry
What Cornwall can hire locally, and what comes down by van, is in the kit rental guide. A van that drives down goes on the quote with its mileage, before it’s booked.
Who travels
Cornish crew first. When a shoot needs more hands, or a role that’s scarce down here, they come from Bristol, Devon or London, and the travel and hotels are on the quote before anything is booked. On the Lizard for Cohere, the 1st AC, the 2nd AC and the tracking vehicle’s three-person team travelled, and the crew hotel was in Helston. How crew travel time and mileage are paid: travel, hotels and vans for a UK shoot.
02 By train
Trains from Paddington
GWR runs the main line from London Paddington to Penzance. From its own pages and timetable, checked October 2026.
| Leaves Paddington | Bodmin Parkway | Par | St Austell | Truro | Penzance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06:00 | 10:26 | 10:37 | 10:44 | 11:01 | 11:40 |
| 08:03 | 11:56 | 12:06 | 12:13 | 12:30 | 13:07 |
The fastest trains
GWR gives 4 hours 21 minutes from Paddington to Truro on the fastest trains, 5 hours 4 to Penzance and 1 hour 50 from Plymouth to Penzance (checked October 2026).
The stations
The main line stops at Bodmin Parkway, Par, St Austell and Truro on the way to Penzance, with branch lines towards Newquay, Looe, St Ives and Falmouth.
What goes by train
A director and a producer, or a camera operator with a bag of batteries, cards and drives. Lighting, stands, track and carts come in a van. GWR’s luggage limits are in our UK travel guide.
Meeting the train
Most locations are a drive from the station, so a driver or a runner meets the train, and that drive is on the call sheet with the train times.
03 Overnight
The Night Riviera sleeper
The overnight train between London and Penzance: a crew member down for a morning call, or a drive of rushes up to London, while everyone sleeps.
| Night Riviera | Monday to Friday nights | Sunday night |
|---|---|---|
| Leaves Paddington | 23:45 | 23:50 |
| Sets down at Truro | 07:06 | 07:06 |
| Arrives in Penzance | 07:50 | 07:54 |
| Leaves Penzance | 21:45 | 21:15 |
| Picks up at Truro | 22:29 | 22:00 |
| Arrives in Paddington | about 05:05 | 05:03 |
Six nights a week
GWR says the sleeper runs six nights a week between Paddington and Penzance; its timetable gives Monday to Friday and Sunday nights.
Where it stops
Westbound it sets down at Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, Lostwithiel, Par, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle and St Erth.
Fares
A single cabin from £49, a twin from £59 (checked October 2026).
At Paddington
GWR warns that with works at the station, the evening sleeper won’t always be ready to board when you get there.
For a call
Into Truro at 07:06 suits a 09:00 call in mid-Cornwall. It doesn’t suit a 07:00 unit call on the Lizard, so crew for an early call come down the day before.
For rushes
A drive on the 22:29 from Truro is in Paddington by about 05:05. How rushes leave Cornwall is in the DIT and data guide.
04 By air
Cornwall Airport Newquay
The county’s airport is at St Mawgan, just outside Newquay. Routes from the airport’s and the council’s own pages, checked October 2026.
London
Ryanair flies to London Stansted. easyJet ran a twice-weekly summer service to Gatwick from 23 June 2026, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, in place of the subsidised Gatwick flights the council said were being cancelled.
Manchester
Loganair all year round, and easyJet from April to October: just over an hour in the air, the airport says.
Newcastle and Edinburgh
Loganair to Newcastle twice a week from May to September, and Ryanair to Edinburgh in its summer 2026 schedule, which also took in Dublin, Faro, Málaga and Alicante.
Season by season
Routes change with the season, so we check the schedule before anyone’s flight is booked, and we don’t plan a shoot day around a twice-weekly flight.
The Isles of Scilly
Skybus flies to St Mary’s from Newquay, as well as from Land’s End and Exeter: more below.
From abroad
Flying in from abroad, with or without kit? Here’s how overseas teams book a Cornwall crew, or a UK production service company if you need one.
05 The last mile
Lanes, parking and the last mile
The hardest part of a Cornish location is often the last stretch: a lane, a gate, a footpath, then a headland with no road at all. Parking rules from Cornwall Council’s own pages, checked October 2026.
Unit bases
A base in a council car park is agreed with the council’s Parking Team, outside FilmApp, and the council’s filming page links the map of which car parks are its own. Screen Cornwall warns that car parks and access roads often have other owners.
Parking on restricted streets
A parking dispensation for vehicles essential to filming is £20 a day per vehicle from Cornwall Council, with at least five working days’ notice (checked October 2026). It can’t be issued on double yellow lines, on a pavement, or in a disabled, doctor’s, taxi, bus or residents’ bay.
Loading
In many places a van can load and unload on restricted lines as long as it moves straight after, so we read the signs before paying for a bay.
Off the road
FilmApp’s terms allow no vehicles on council property without specific permission, and the code of practice keeps crew vehicles off pavements and kerbs and away from the location unless spaces were set aside. The unit base is where everyone parks.
Carts and hands
On the Lizard for Cohere, vehicles couldn’t go onto the clifftops, so the kit went in on beach carts, lifted over the stone walls by the crew.
Radios
No phone signal on the headland, so the unit ran on twelve walkie-talkies along a mile of cliff path. We plan for no signal until the recce proves otherwise.
Who books it
A bigger unit needs someone to book the base, the bays and the traffic management. That’s the production manager’s job, and on a small job a production assistant often drives. Road closures and their 12 weeks’ notice are in the locations and permits guide.
06 The coast
Tides, beaches and the sea
On a beach or a harbour wall the tide sets the call. Checked October 2026.
Tide tables
ADMIRALTY EasyTide, from the UK Hydrographic Office, gives free predictions for today and the next six days at more than 600 ports. For a date further out we check the tide tables before the call sheet is written, and the call follows the tide, not the other way round.
Uneven tides
Screen Cornwall says Cornish tides are far from predictable and don’t come in and out evenly, and points to Surfline and Surf-Reports for tide times.
Lifeguards
From 2 May 2026 RNLI lifeguards patrol 20 Cornish beaches every day; at Polzeath and Porthcurno the patrol runs 10:00 to 18:00. FilmApp’s terms say tell the lifeguards before filming on a patrolled beach.
The coastguard and the harbour
Screen Cornwall says to tell the coastguard when you’re filming on the water. Each harbour has its own authority: they’re in the locations guide.
Below the tideline
Screen Cornwall says the foreshore is the Duchy of Cornwall’s, so filming there at low tide needs its own permission.
From our own work
For The Sustainable Catch we went out on the Atlantic Voyager from Newquay harbour and up the Camel Estuary, and for Airbnb’s Guardians of Cornwall our own crew shot in the water.
07 Weather
Weather days: fog, wind and rain
On the coast it’s the wind and the fog that move a shoot, as often as the rain. The Met Office’s averages for two Cornish weather stations, one of them on the Lizard.
| Met Office average, 1991–2020 | Camborne | Culdrose, on the Lizard |
|---|---|---|
| Rain a year | 1,076mm | 981mm |
| Days with 1mm of rain or more | about 155 | about 150 |
| Sunshine a year | 1,672 hours | 1,611 hours |
| Mean wind speed | 10.5 knots | 12.1 knots |
| Average high, January and July | 9.2°C and 18.7°C | 9.4°C and 19.0°C |
Fog
On the Lizard for Cohere, a fortnight of good forecasts turned to fog the evening before. We put the options to Cohere in writing, with what each would cost; Cohere chose to shoot, and the call moved to 07:00 to work while the mist was thickest.
In writing, first
Every weather option, and what each one costs, goes to the client in writing before anyone decides. Nobody is ambushed by a moved day or a foggy one.
Moving the permit
Cornwall Council’s FilmApp FAQ says permit dates can be moved for weather by its filming coordinator. Other landowners have their own terms, so we ask about a weather day when we apply.
Holding a second day
For a shot that depends on the sky, a second day can be held. On Cohere’s Portuguese leg, in Ericeira, we held two days for one sunset and moved by a day.
08 The long day
A long summer day on the Lizard
In June the light runs long, and so can the day. Here’s how the Lizard day for Cohere ran, from the call sheet.
01
06:30 · Camera call
The camera team called half an hour before the unit.
02
07:00 · Unit call
Moved earlier the evening before, so the unit was working while the fog was thickest.
03
All day · No road, no signal
Kit in on beach carts, no generators, and twelve radios along a mile of cliff path.
04
21:00 · Wrap
Fourteen hours after the unit call.
05
After wrap · Helston
The crew hotel was in Helston, close to the Lizard.
Summer traffic
Screen Cornwall says summer shoots are common but traffic is harder and accommodation limited, so plan ahead; Visit Cornwall warns of peak-season and weekend traffic on the roads in.
Early calls near homes
The council’s code asks for noise to be kept down from 22:00 to 08:00, which matters for an early call or a late wrap in a village.
Overtime
Our day rates are for 11 hours, lunch included. A 14-hour day is overtime for the crew, at card rates, agreed with you before it happens: film crew rates in the UK.
In August
Whistlefish’s first TV ad was shot over two days in August 2025, in one house and on the coast, at Talland Bay, Hessenford and Lostwithiel. In the school holidays we allow for the traffic Visit Cornwall warns about.
09 Hotels
Where crews stay: near the call
Near the location
For the Lizard, Cohere’s crew hotel was in Helston. We book rooms near the call, not near the station.
Screen Cornwall’s list
Its Film Office keeps an accommodation database with Visit Cornwall, out-of-season stays included.
In summer
Screen Cornwall says accommodation is limited in summer, so we book rooms as soon as the dates hold.
Who gets a room
Crew who come down from Bristol, Devon or London, on the quote before anything is booked.
On the quote
Hotels we book go on with everything else, under the same 10% booking fee and 2% insurance. On a full production they’re lines in the budget, under our 15% production fee and 5% insurance and contingency.
10 Offshore
The Isles of Scilly
Getting crew and kit to the islands is its own job, with its own luggage rules. From the Isles of Scilly Steamship Group, the Council of the Isles of Scilly and the Duchy, checked October 2026.
Getting there
The Scillonian III sails from Penzance to St Mary’s, and Skybus flies to St Mary’s from Land’s End, Newquay and Exeter.
Kit on the ferry
Two hold pieces each, up to 85 x 60 x 40cm, 25kg between them and 20kg at most for one, plus 5kg of hand luggage, a camera bag and a laptop. Excess is £37.26 per 50kg return, booked before travel, and all freight is booked ahead.
Batteries and gas
Modified batteries are refused, and gas cylinders go to the quay staff.
A new ship
2026 is the Scillonian III’s last season: the Scillonian IV takes the route in 2027, with room for up to 600 passengers.
Drones
St Mary’s Airport’s flight restriction zone is active at all times, and Tresco bans drones without the estate’s express permission.
Whose land
The Duchy of Cornwall owns about three quarters of the islands’ land, so it’s often the first permission to ask for.
Want the Cornwall logistics sorted?
Send the dates, the locations and who’s travelling. We’ll plan the trains, the vans and the unit base, check the tides, and book the parking, hotels and food with the crew, each on its own line. Or call us on 07412 543822.
Quick contact form
11 Questions
Shoot logistics in Cornwall: questions
How do crew get to Cornwall from London?
By train from Paddington: GWR gives 4 hours 21 minutes to Truro and 5 hours 4 to Penzance on the fastest trains, and the Night Riviera sleeper runs six nights a week. By road, Visit Cornwall puts London at less than five hours from the heart of Cornwall, traffic allowing. Ryanair flies from London Stansted to Cornwall Airport Newquay. Checked October 2026.
Does the Night Riviera sleeper run every night?
Six nights a week, Monday to Friday and Sunday nights. It leaves Paddington at 23:45 (23:50 on Sundays) and sets down at Truro at 07:06. Eastbound it leaves Penzance at 21:45 on weekdays, picks up at Truro at 22:29 and reaches Paddington at about 05:05. A single cabin is from £49 and a twin from £59. Checked October 2026.
Which flights go to Cornwall Airport Newquay?
Ryanair to London Stansted; Loganair to Manchester all year, with easyJet from April to October; Loganair to Newcastle twice a week from May to September; and in summer 2026, easyJet to Gatwick twice a week and Ryanair to Edinburgh, Dublin, Faro, Málaga and Alicante. Skybus flies from Newquay to St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly. Checked October 2026.
Where can a crew van park on a Cornwall shoot?
A unit base in a council car park is agreed with Cornwall Council’s Parking Team. On a restricted street, a parking dispensation for vehicles essential to filming is £20 a day per vehicle with five working days’ notice, but never on double yellow lines, pavements or disabled, doctors’, taxi, bus or residents’ bays. Vehicles don’t go onto council land without permission. Checked October 2026.
How do tides affect a shoot in Cornwall?
On a beach or a harbour wall the tide sets the call. ADMIRALTY EasyTide gives predictions a week ahead; for a later date we check the tide tables before the call sheet is written. RNLI lifeguards patrol 20 Cornish beaches from May and need telling before you film, and the foreshore below the high-tide line may need the Duchy of Cornwall’s permission.
What happens if the weather turns on a Cornwall shoot?
We put the options to you in writing, with what each one costs, before anyone decides. On the Lizard for Cohere, fog came in the evening before; Cohere chose to shoot and the call moved to 07:00. Cornwall Council can move FilmApp permit dates for weather. The Met Office’s averages give Camborne about 155 days a year with a millimetre of rain or more.
Where do crews stay on a Cornwall shoot?
Near the location, not the station: for Cohere on the Lizard the crew hotel was in Helston. Screen Cornwall’s Film Office keeps an accommodation list with Visit Cornwall, and says summer rooms are limited, so we book as soon as the dates hold.
Can you sort the logistics with the crew?
Yes. Send the dates, the locations and who’s travelling. We plan the trains, the vans and the unit base, check the tides, and book the parking, hotels and food with the crew, each on its own line of the quote, with travel and mileage at cost. On a crew hire, everything we book carries the 10% booking fee and 2% insurance. Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours.
Around the crew
More for Cornwall shoots
01
Kit rental
The Cornish Camera Co., Falmouth University’s stores, the crew’s own kit, and what comes down from Bristol.
02
Locations and permits
Cornwall Council, the National Trust, Natural England, the Duchy, the harbours and the drone rules.
03
Studios and set builds
Falmouth University’s studios, converted barns and pop-up spaces, and the stages in Bristol.
04
Props and wardrobe
Falmouth’s wardrobe store, props from upcountry, replica weapons, stylists and HMU.
