Newhaven Marine railway station is a station in Newhaven, East Sussex, England near. It is legally open, but has been closed to passengers since August 2006 due to safety concerns. The station has been a site of fascination due to the operation of "Parliamentary train" services to the station which do not appear in timetables and which are inaccessible to the public but which nonetheless call at the station once a day in order to fulfill the legal obligations of an 'open' station. The station is set to officially and permanently close on or after the 26 September 2020
History
The first station adjacent to the site was named Newhaven Wharf which opened with the line from Lewes on 8 December 1847 and closed when Newhaven Harbour station opened. The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway opened the station on 17 May 1886, as Newhaven Harbour. On 14 May 1984, British Rail renamed the station to Newhaven Marine. The line to Newhaven Marine branches off the Seaford line at Newhaven Harbour Junction. The single platform of Newhaven Marine is numbered 3; it is long enough for 12 coaches, and is to the south of Newhaven Harbour station. There is a run-round loop. While Newhaven Marine was once a busy station, offering connections for ferry passengers travelling to Dieppe in France, gradual reductions in ferry passenger numbers led to a fall in demand for the station. By 2006, it was served by a daily Parliamentary train, the name given to services in the UK which are operated in order to meet the legal obligations of train companies to keep a station or line open. In August 2006, the station was closed to the public due to safety concerns over the condition of the roof canopy, which was later removed. A daily service continued to operate, stopping at the station platforms but with passengers unable to access it. Attention was brought to the situation in a BBC Radio 4 programme, The Ghost Trains of Old England, in October 2010, and the station became well known among railway enthusiasts for its unusual status. At this time, much of the station building remained standing, with fences preventing access to the platforms. A poster at the station offered ticket-holders a taxi to Newhaven Harbour station at the scheduled time of the Parliamentary train, although the journey between the two stations is less than a 2 minute walk.
Services and the station today
In 2017, the station buildings were demolished and access to the site remained impossible. In May 2018, it was revealed that the station was being considered for a legal closure as part of plans to improve freight connectivity in the area. Since August 2006, one daily parliamentary service called at the station, which was formed with empty stock movements barred from passenger use. However, this service was suspended in early 2019 due to resignalling works. On 15 January 2020, the Department for Transport opened a formal public consultation to close the station. The consultation closed at 11:45 on 19 April 2020. The consultation attracted 27 responses with only 4 opposing the decision to close the station. Two of these opposed the closure on the basis that it may negatively impact local rail services; the other two raised concerns over the closure of any railway station. With very little opposition to closure, the DfT announced their proposal to close the station on June 24th, 2020. The DfT’s decision will now be submitted to the Office of Rail & Road for ratification. If the Office of Rail & Road approve the DfT’s decision, the station will be closed on or after September 26th, 2020. Today, Newhaven Marine consists of a run-around loop adjacent to the old station platform. Further south, the track extends into Newhaven East Quay, to a marine-dredged aggregates handling plant. Aggregates and sand imported from ships are carried by conveyor and loaded onto freight trains towards London. The first aggregates train was operated by DB Cargo UK and ran on 18 June 2020.
