London Paddington->Cornwall Bodmin Pkwy Station Sunday of 2027 Early May Bank Holiday Weekend

There should be no issue with capacity on a bank holiday Sunday morning, especially being able to book in advance. The issue will be that holiday weekends are often used to undertake railway maintenance programmes which might mean that the route might be affected, there might be replacement buses for part of the journey, you might need to take a train from Waterloo rather than Paddington etc. Or everything might be perf3ctly normal, but no one will probably know until well into 2027.

There is also the option of taking the Rail/Air coach from Heathrow to Reading and picking up the train there rather than going into Paddington.

You will need to arrange some transportation from Bodmin Parkway as the station is well out of town and there are very few services.

2- Are the train schedules different on a bank holiday weekend?

They can be. Engineering works are often scheduled on bank holiday weekends so sometimes there is no train option for a route. These should be announced by about 3 months before your planned trip.

I'm sure that Stuart or Nigel will be along to offer detailed advice, but my first comment would be that there are often engineering works over a bank holiday, and there might not be any trains at all!
By the way, It's Bodmin, with an "M".

Thanks for these helpful replies and the dose of reality regarding potential maintenance. Will correct misspelling - working from memory. I have taxi pick-up & drop-off arrangements on my list of things to do.

There are a number of questions here- the basic normal schedules for December 2026 to May 2027 are available now, but they are not in the public domain, as they may yet be tweaked. In principle the Sunday schedule is the same throughout that period.

However Sundays generally, and especially on a Bank Holiday weekend are subject to disruption due to engineering work. That is only confirmed at around but not always exactly 12 weeks out although there is a draft schedule out now up until Christmas.

So we know there is a full closure of Paddington over Christmas/New Year with limited diversions to London Euston, but not the details or timings.
There will be a huge bus replacement programme in place for local stations, and passengers can also be expected to divert from Reading into Waterloo, also to use the Waterloo to Exeter direct trains.
For all anyone knows that could also happen on the early May Bank Holiday 2027 as well.

Equally there could be a line closure in Devon or Cornwall, so trains may run to Exeter or Plymouth say, then buses. Or a doughnut of trains to say Exeter, buses to Plymouth, then trains west of Plymouth as an example.

Or the direct line is closed, and all trains have to divert via Bath and/or Bristol with extended journey times.

We just don't know.

As for how crowded the train will be, how long is a piece of string? A lot depends on the weather. If it's wonderful weather people will decide at very short notice to go, both from London and stations further down the line, even on the day.

If the weather is awful people won't go. Some will even cancel pre booked plans.