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. The station is sometimes used as an interchange to avoid travelling into Eastbourne itself.

Hampden Park
The platforms at Hampden Park, looking north
General information
Location	Hampden Park, Eastbourne England
Coordinates	50.796°N 0.279°E / 50.796; 0.279
Grid reference	TQ607021
Managed by	Southern
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	HMD
Classification	DfT category E
History
Original company	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Pre-grouping	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
Key dates
1 January 1888 (1888-01-01)	Opened as Willingdon
1 July 1903	renamed Hampden Park for Willingdon
?	Renamed Hampden Park
Passengers
2018/19	0.634 million
2019/20	0.672 million
Interchange	0.164 million
2020/21	0.306 million
Interchange	40,484
2021/22	0.626 million
Interchange	0.101 million
2022/23	0.695 million
Interchange	0.121 million
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

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

Location

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.^[3]

The level crossing at Hampden Park is thought to be one of the busiest in the country,^[4] 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

171801 at Hampden Park with a service bound for Ashford International

The typical Monday-Friday off-peak service pattern is:

• 2tph to London Victoria (of which one stops here before Eastbourne and one stops after Eastbourne);
• 2tph to Brighton (one of which stops before Eastbourne, and the other after Eastbourne);
• 2tph to Ore (one of which stops before Eastbourne, and the other after Eastbourne);
• 1tph to Ashford International (stopping after Eastbourne);
• 3tph to Eastbourne only.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Polegate		Southern East Coastway line		Eastbourne
Pevensey & Westham

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.
2. Handbook of Stations ... on the Railways of Great Britain and Ireland British Transport Commission (Railway Clearing House) 1956
3. "Table U". Southern. 16 December 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2024. Change at Hampden Park for stations towards Brighton
4. "Level crossing warnings at Hampden Park". Eastbourne Herald. Johnston Press Digital Publishing. 16 December 2009. Archived from the original on 23 January 2010. Retrieved 3 March 2010.

External links

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