Uckfield railway station

Uckfield
Location
Place	Uckfield
Local authority	District of Wealden
Grid reference	TQ473209
Operations
Station code	UCK
Managed by	Southern
Number of platforms	1
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.147 million
2005/06	0.217 million
2006/07	0.263 million
2007/08	0.310 million
2008/09	0.335 million
2009/10	0.337 million
2010/11	0.403 million
2011/12	0.445 million
2012/13	0.538 million
2013/14	0.547 million
2014/15	0.552 million
History
Original company	Lewes and Uckfield Railway
Pre-grouping	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
18 October 1858	Opened
January 1990	Line singled (down platform closed)
13 May 1991	Relocated
9 December 2000	Original station demolished
16 March 2010	Station rebuilt
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Uckfield from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Uckfield railway station serves Uckfield in East Sussex, England. Train services from the station are provided by Southern, and the station is the terminus for the Uckfield branch of the Oxted Line.

History

Original Uckfield station in 2007

The present Uckfield station opened in 1991 replacing the original structure which was sited 55 yards (50 m) to the south. With the closure of the line south to Lewes (where a junction allowed trains to continue on to Eastbourne or Brighton), the original station found itself stranded on the wrong side of a level crossing on the High Street which created traffic congestion whenever a train was arriving or departing from the station. The decision was therefore made to close the original station (which had been opened in 1868) and to open a new station on the other side of the road. The original station was demolished on 9 December 2000 after it had been damaged by flooding.^[1]

Since 1986 there had been a campaign to re-open the line south of Uckfield through to Lewes, known as the Wealden Line, which attracted cross-party support.^[2] In 2008 the "Wealdenlink" presentation was published which gave new impetus to the campaign for reinstatement.^[3] On 23 July 2008 the Central Rail Corridor Board (a joint group of local councils and stakeholders) commissioned study by Network Rail reported that there was not an economic case for reopening, citing a £141 million cost and an allegedly low "benefit-cost ratio" of 0.64 to 0.79 when a figure of 1.5 is the minimum required by the Department for Transport to make a scheme viable.^[4]

As part of Network Rail's national stations improvement programme, Uckfield received a new station building to replace the 1991 portakabin-type structure which was deemed "not fit for purpose".^[5] The new building was built to Network Rail's modular, pre-fabricated design used at Mitcham Eastfields and Greenhithe.^[6] The components for Uckfield's new station building - consisting of a ticket office, public toilet, staff accommodation, ticket hall and café - were manufactured by Britspace in Yorkshire and installed by contractors Bryen & Langley.^[7] The new building, which cost £750,000,^[8] was opened for passenger use on 16 March 2010.^[9]

Whereas the neighbouring East Grinstead line has 750 V DC electric traction, motive power on Uckfield line is provided by Class 171 diesel multiple units. It has been proposed many times that the line be electrified, but this is considered too expensive for the amount of passenger traffic.^[10] Rail usage figures published in March 2010 showed that journeys from the station had increased by 179% in the five years to 2008/09.^[11]

Services

The typical off-peak service is one train per hour to London Bridge, calling at Buxted, Crowborough, Eridge, Ashurst, Cowden, Hever, Edenbridge Town, Hurst Green, Oxted and East Croydon. On Sundays this is reduced to an hourly shuttle to Oxted calling at all stations. Previously, most off peak trains from Uckfield only went as far as Oxted (with an interchange with East Grinstead line services), but since Southern has taken over the service, it has been extended and passenger numbers have risen. In December 2010 a new later evening service from London Bridge (around 11pm) was introduced allowing passengers for the first time in recent years to travel home from London in the late evening.

Future

Platforms on the Uckfield branch of the Oxted Line are currently being extended to hold ten carriage trains to allow longer services to run during peak hours. The extension of services to ten coaches has caused Southern to acquire four Class 170 turbostars from ScotRail, increasing capacity. The Class 170s will be converted to Class 171s to allow full compatibility with Southern's existing Class 171 fleet.

References

1. "Disused Stations". Subterranea Britannica.
2. Hart, Brian. "Wealden Line Campaign". Retrieved 2010-03-31.
3. Hart, Brian. "WealdenLink". Retrieved 2010-03-31.
4. East Sussex County Council (2008-10-20). "Lewes-Uckfield rail link". Retrieved 2010-03-31.
5. Network Rail (2010-03-16). "New Station at Uckfield Opens for Passengers". Retrieved 2010-03-31.
6. Network Rail (2009-07-02). "Uckfield Passengers to Benefit from a New Station". Retrieved 2010-03-31.
7. "Modular building transforms Uckfield station". Modern Railways 67 (739): 8. April 2010.
8. Uckfield News (2010-03-17). "New Uckfield rail station opens". Retrieved 2010-03-31.
9. "Newly constructed station building opens at Uckfield" (PDF). Railway Herald (216). 2010-03-22. p. 6. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
10. Tony McNulty (2004-06-10). "Lewes-Uckfield Rail Link". HC Deb, 10 June 2004, c495. House of Commons. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
11. Southern (2010-03-17). "Brand New Station Opens at Uckfield". Retrieved 2010-03-31.

External links

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

Coordinates: 50°58′08″N 0°05′46″E / 50.969°N 0.096°E