Exeter City Council - Communications
Connections By Road
Centrally located in the South West, Exeter's city centre is under 10 minutes from Junction 29 of the M5 motorway. The A303, A30, and A38 main roads are also easily accessed.
Exeter is 8 miles across and has a city-wide bus network with frequent buses. Inter-linked park and ride sites provide alternatives to car parking in the city. Exeter is also a cycle-friendly city.
Central London can be reached within a drive time of 3 hours 40 minutes. Birmingham can be reached in 2 hours 50 minutes. Locally, the coast and Dartmoor National Park are within a 20-minute drive.
Distance to Central London: Up to 200 miles (Up to 4 hours)Distance to Birmingham: Up to 200 miles (Up to 2.5 hours)
Distance to Bristol: Up to 100 miles (Up to 1.5 hour)
Distance to Leeds: Up to 300 miles (Up to 5 hours)
Distance to Leicester: Up to 200 miles (Up to 4 hours)
Distance to Liverpool: Up to 300 miles (Up to 5 hours)
Distance to Manchester: Up to 300 miles (Up to 5 hours)
Distance to Sheffield: Up to 300 miles (Up to 5 hours)
Distance to Oxford: Up to 200 miles (Up to 3 hours)
Distance to Cambridge: Up to 300 miles (Up to 5 hours)
Connections By Rail
Exeter has two mainline stations: Exeter St. David's and Central, taking passengers to London, the Midlands, and the North. These rail services connect Exeter to all major UK cities and to France via the Channel Tunnel. Bristol is just 1 hour away by train. Birmingham is 2.5 hours away.
Direct services go to London Paddington and London Waterloo. The Paddington journey can take as little as 2 hours.
Exeter's mainline stations are easily accessible, and six further local stations, make rail travel across the city very easy. Additionally, there are 30 railway stations within a 45-minute commute of the city.
Connections By Air
Exeter International Airport is six miles from Exeter - just a 3-minute drive from Junction 29 of the M5 motorway, and about a 15-minute drive from the city centre.
Flights travel to over 50 destinations, including Amsterdam, Belfast, Dublin, Paris and Toronto. The airport deals with over 1 million passengers a year. Most travel on scheduled flights. Flybe, Europe’s largest regional and the UK’s number one domestic low-cost airline, operates from here.
The airport has grown hugely in recent years, both in terms of the flights offered and its employment sites. Exeter Airport has a vision for the future.
Closest Airport: Exeter InternationalDistance to Bristol: Up to 75 miles (Up to 1.5 hour)
Distance to London Heathrow: Up to 200 miles (Up to 3 hours)
Connections By Freight Ports
Milbay Docks at Plymouth are a 1-hour drive away, and operate freight and passenger services to France and Spain. There are 5,420 square metres of covered storage, with an additional 34,000 square metres of open storage for freight and vehicles.
Exeter is a 1.5-hour drive from the Royal Portbury and Avonmouth Docks near Bristol Port. The Port's 2,600-acre site has 120,000 square metres of covered storage with an additional 24 hectares of uncovered storage.
The Port of Poole can be reached in 2 hours, Teignmouth Port in 30 minutes, Southampton Port in 2.5 hours, and Milford Haven in 4 hours.
Distance to Southampton: Up to 150 miles (Up to 3 hours)Distance to Avonmouth/Bristol: Up to 75 miles (Up to 1.5 hour)
Broadband / ICT Facilities
Exeter has a high level of communications infrastructure, including large capacity fibre-optic cable and good wi-fi coverage. The city is home to a number of internet and communication providers, including Eclipse Internet and South West Communications Group.
British Telecom (BT) is one of the major employers in the city, with over 1,000 staff at their major Exbridge House call centre. Additionally, BT has launched a £1.5 billion plan to roll out fibre-based broadband, and is working closely with local and regional authorities to ensure that this opportunity – granting 100MB/s broadband to the entire region – is in place by 2012.
