Cooden Beach railway station

Cooden Beach serves Cooden at the western end of Bexhill in East Sussex. It is on the East Coastway Line, and train services are provided by Southern.

Cooden Beach
The platforms at Cooden Beach station, looking west
Location
Place	Cooden Beach, Bexhill-on-Sea
Local authority	Rother, East Sussex
Coordinates	50.833°N 0.427°E / 50.833; 0.427
Grid reference	TQ709065
Operations
Station code	COB
Managed by	Southern
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	0.126 million
2015/16	0.123 million
2016/17	85,186
2017/18	90,694
2018/19	0.108 million
History
Original company	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Pre-grouping	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
11 September 1905 (1905-09-11)	Opened as Cooden Golf Halt
by 1922	Renamed Cooden Halt
7 July 1935	Renamed Cooden Beach
National Rail – UK railway stations
Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Cooden Beach from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

The station

The station was first opened on 11 September 1905 as Cooden Golf Halt[1] to serve a growing area of new, mainly high quality, housing located close to the beach (hence its later name). By 1922, the name had been simplified to Cooden Halt.[1] With the growing housing development of the 1930s and the electrification of the line a new enlarged station was built adopting its present name of Cooden Beach on 7 July 1935.[1] The station building is at street level and a subway leads to the platforms with their wooden shelters. The shop next to the ticket office (now combined) has been a sporting goods store and a carpet store.

In the latter half of 2005 and early 2006, Cooden Beach station underwent a minor refurbishment programme to bring the station in line with Southern's image (the company's dark green colour scheme was implemented). The improvements included new double glazing on the subways leading to the platforms and opening up the waiting rooms, which had been closed for at least a decade. The last major refurbishment, by Connex, opened up the old ticket office and shop and turned it into a Costcutter supermarket but a whole station refurbishment was never completed.

The station had a ticket office since its change from a halt, as well as an adjoining shop; however since the latter days of British Rail and early Connex times, the station was unmanned and a single ticket machine and Permit to travel dispenser were the only station furniture. The introduction of the mini-market seems to have boosted visits to the station and trains now run more frequently. Although in 2008 the mini market was sold off and a new ticket office was built.

Cooden Beach is a penalty fare station with most trains operating Southern's strict Penalty Fares policy.

Services

The typical off-peak service is:

• 1tph to Ore via Hastings
• 1tph to Ashford International
• 1tph to Eastbourne
• 1tph to London Victoria via Eastbourne, Gatwick Airport and East Croydon

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Normans Bay		Southern East Coastway Line Stopping		Collington

References

1. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 68. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

• Train times and station information for Cooden Beach railway station from National Rail