South Bank railway station (England)

The first station, initially called Eston, was built in 1853 by the Middlesbrough & Redcar Railway. In 1882 this was replaced by an island platform by the NER to serve the growing town of South BankIronically, this was located on the same site as the present station. The 1882 station was closed on the same day that its replacement opened; this survived intact but derelict for many years thereafter but has since been demolished to allow the down (eastbound) line through the site to be realigned.[1]

In July 1984, British Rail opened the current station to the west, as the previous station inconveniently sited in the middle of a heavily industrialised area and in the way of a planned new dockside access road. ref>

Two other closed stations were also located either side of South Bank on this stretch of line: Grangetown (closed November 1991)[2][3] and Cargo Fleet (closed January 1990).[4][5]

Route 3: Tees Valley Line
Bishop Auckland Shildon Newton Aycliffe Heighington North Road Darlington Dinsdale Teesside Airport Allens West Thornaby Middlesbrough South Bank Redcar Central Redcar East Longbeck Marske Saltburn

Station facilities here have recently been improved as part of the Tees Valley Metro project. The package for this station included new fully lit waiting shelters, renewed station signage and the installation of CCTV. The long-line Public Address system (PA) has been renewed and upgraded with pre-recorded train announcements.

Since the timetable change of December 2013, there is now an hourly basic service from the station in both directions (including Sundays) westbound to Middlesbrough (and hence to Darlington and Bishop Auckland) and eastbound to Saltburn.[6] This is a major improvement on the former service level of just 3 trains in each direction per weekday (peak hours only) that applied prior to the December 2012 timetable change. Tees Valley Unlimited, a partnership between local councils successfully campaigned to enhance service patterns at South Bank from existing services on the line.[7]

The station usage estimates of 2014 and 2015 also make note of the fact that the service improvement has increased the patronage substantially enough to be in the top ten most percentage increase of passenger numbers across the whole of the United Kingdom.[8][9]

• 
  Entrance to the station closest to the River Tees, showing a 1980s-style British Rail station name sign (the rest of the station signage is in Northern styling).
• 
  Opposite end of the footbridge to the previous picture, showing the decrepit nature of the station. This entrance is closest to the town.

• Train times and station information for South Bank railway station (England) from National Rail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Redcar Central		Northern Trains Tees Valley Line		Middlesbrough
	Historical railways
Grangetown Line open, station closed		London and North Eastern Railway Tees Valley Line		Cargo Fleet Line open, station closed