Sellafield railway station

Sellafield
Location
Place	Sellafield
Local authority	Copeland
Coordinates	54°25′01″N 3°30′36″W / 54.417°N 3.510°WCoordinates: 54°25′01″N 3°30′36″W / 54.417°N 3.510°W
Grid reference	NY020034
Operations
Station code	SEL
Managed by	Northern
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.208 million
2005/06	0.232 million
2006/07	0.259 million
2007/08	0.353 million
2008/09	0.069 million
2009/10	0.362 million
2010/11	0.219 million
2011/12	0.221 million
2012/13	0.236 million
2013/14	0.223 million
2014/15	0.243 million
History
Key dates	Opened 1850
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Sellafield from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Sellafield railway station serves the nuclear facility of Sellafield in Cumbria, England. The railway station is a stop on the scenic Cumbrian Coast Line. Some through trains to the Furness Line stop here. It is operated by Northern who provide all passenger train services.

The station (which dates from 1850) is a busy freight location, as much of the nuclear waste for Sellafield's Thorp nuclear fuel reprocessing plant is carried by train here from the docks in Barrow-in-Furness or from rail-connected nuclear power stations elsewhere in the UK.

The station marks the end of the single line section from Whitehaven, which is operated using the electric key token system. From here the line southwards towards Ravenglass and Barrow is double track (apart from the final section between Park South Junction (south of Askam) and Barrow, which is also single).

The station was also the southern terminus of the former Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway line from Egremont from August 1869 until closure in March 1964.^[1]

Historical diagram; Sellafield on right showing line to Egremont

Services

There are ten trains a day from the station each weekday to Whitehaven and Carlisle northbound and eleven to Barrow southbound^[2] since the 2008 timetable change (an improvement of two each way compared to the previous 2007-8 service level). Certain southbound trains continue on to Lancaster. It was reported in November 2011 that Direct Rail Services had applied to the Office of Rail Regulation to operate one train in each direction between Carlisle and Sellafield to carry workers to Sellafield.^[3] 4 trains per day each way now operate (since May 2015) using Mark 2 coaches and Class 37 Diesel locomotives hired in from DRS to provide additional seating capacity for Sellafield plant workers.

There is no evening or Sunday service.

References

1. Marshall, J (1981) Forgotten Railways North-West England, David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Newton Abbott. ISBN 0-7153-8003-6; p.163
2. "Train Times 11 December - 13 May 2012: Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness with connections to Lancaster and Preston" (PDF). Northern Rail Limited. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
3. Clinnick, Richard (2 November 2011). "'Sellafield workers' trains will start this year' says DRS". RAIL (682): 6–7. ISSN 0953-4563.

External links

• Train times and station information for Sellafield railway station from National Rail

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Braystones		Northern Rail Cumbrian Coast Line Mondays-Saturdays only		Seascale