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	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
2015/16	0.600 million
2016/17	0.506 million
2017/18	0.543 million
2018/19	0.634 million
2019/20	0.672 million
Interchange	0.164 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

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.