Hampden Park railway station

Hampden Park railway station serves Hampden Park in the northern areas of the seaside town of Eastbourne in East Sussex. It is on the East Coastway Line, and train services are provided by Southern. Opened on 1 January 1888, it was originally called Willingdon, but was renamed Hampden Park for Willingdon on 1 July 1903. The name became Hampden Park under British Railways.[1] It is one of two stations serving Eastbourne, the other being Eastbourne railway station

Hampden Park
Hampden Park railway station in 2008
Location
Place	Hampden Park
Local authority	Eastbourne
Coordinates	50.796°N 0.279°E / 50.796; 0.279
Grid reference	TQ607021
Operations
Station code	HMD
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	0.594 million
2015/16	0.600 million
2016/17	0.506 million
2017/18	0.543 million
2018/19	0.634 million
History
Original company	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Pre-grouping	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
1 January 1888 (1888-01-01)	Opened as Willingdon
1 July 1903	renamed Hampden Park for Willingdon
?	Renamed Hampden Park
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Hampden Park from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

The station is located on a spur line originally termed the Eastbourne Branch.[2] There was a rarely used triangular junction between Polegate and the now-closed Stone Cross which allowed trains to bypass the Branch; the track has now been lifted. Services along the coast have almost invariably served Eastbourne, and as Eastbourne is at the end of the spur line, the trains pass through Hampden Park station twice - once on the way to Eastbourne, and once on the way out of Eastbourne - although not all trains stop on both occasions. Because of this arrangement, some connections are advertised to allow passengers on the Victoria-Eastbourne service to use Hampden Park to pick up the stopping service to Hastings and vice versa.

The level crossing at Hampden Park is thought to be one of the busiest in the country,[3] with an average of sixteen train movements an hour off-peak, and this can lead to significant traffic congestion on adjacent roads. The signal box which controlled the crossing was abolished in February 2015 when the controls were transferred to Three Bridges Regional Operations Centre.

Services

The typical Mondays-Fridays off-peak service is:

• 2tph to London Victoria (of which one stops here before Eastbourne and one stops after Eastbourne);
• 1tph to Brighton (stopping both before and after Eastbourne);
• 1tph to Hastings (stopping before Eastbourne);
• 2tph to Ore (stopping after Eastbourne);
• 1tph to Ashford International (stopping after Eastbourne);
• 2tph to Eastbourne only.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Polegate		Southern Mainline East (Victoria-Eastbourne)		Eastbourne
Eastbourne		Southern Mainline East (Victoria-Ore)		Pevensey & Westham
Polegate		Southern East Coastway Stopping (Before Eastbourne)		Eastbourne
Eastbourne		Southern East Coastway Stopping (After Eastbourne)		Pevensey & Westham
Polegate		Southern East Coastway Fast Sundays only		Eastbourne

References

1. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. pp. 251, 113. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
2. Handbook of Stations ... on the Railways of Great Britain and Ireland British Transport Commission (Railway Clearing House) 1956
3. "Level crossing warnings at Hampden Park". Eastbourne Herald. Johnston Press Digital Publishing. 16 December 2009. Retrieved 3 March 2010.

External links

• Train times and station information for Hampden Park railway station from National Rail