Uckfield railway station

Uckfield railway station is the southern terminus of a branch of the Oxted Line in England, serving the town of Uckfield, East Sussex. It is 46 miles 8 chains (74.2 km) from London Bridge.

Uckfield
Location
PlaceUckfield
Local authorityWealden
Grid referenceTQ473209
Operations
Station codeUCK
Managed bySouthern
Number of platforms1
DfT categoryE
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 0.552 million
2015/16 0.481 million
2016/17 0.442 million
2017/18 0.451 million
2018/19 0.472 million
History
Original companyLewes and Uckfield Railway
Pre-groupingLondon, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Post-groupingSouthern Railway
18 October 1858Opened
January 1990Track singled
13 May 1991Relocated
9 December 2000Original station demolished
16 March 2010Rebuilt
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.

The station and all trains that call are operated by Southern.

The line used to continue to Lewes and Brighton until 1969.

History
A postcard of the original station in the 1920s

The first station was opened in 1858 by the Lewes and Uckfield Railway Company and was situated south of the High Street level crossing. It became a through station when the line was extended to Tunbridge Wells West in 1868. With the closure of the line south to Lewes in 1969 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 and to open a new station on the other side of the High Street level crossing. The present Uckfield station opened in 1991 replacing the original structure which was sited 55 yards (50 m) to the south. The original station was demolished on 9 December 2000 after it had been damaged by flooding.[1]

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".[2] The new building was built to Network Rail's modular, pre-fabricated design used at Mitcham Eastfields and Greenhithe.[3] 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.[4] The new building, which cost £750,000,[5] was opened for passenger use on 16 March 2010.[6]

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Buxted   Southern
Oxted Line
Uckfield branch		   Terminus
Disused railways
Buxted
Line and station open		   British Rail
Southern Region
Wealden Line		   Isfield
Line closed; station open
  Proposed Heritage railways
Terminus   Lavender Line   Isfield
Line closed; station open

Services
A Southern Class 171 at Uckfield with a service to London

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

Platform extension

Platforms on the Uckfield branch of the Oxted Line were extended in 2016 to hold ten carriage trains to allow longer services to run during peak hours. The extension of services to ten coaches caused Southern to acquire four Class 170 Turbostars from ScotRail, increasing capacity. The Class 170s were converted to Class 171s to allow full compatibility with Southern's existing Class 171 fleet.

Electrification

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.[7] Rail usage figures published in March 2010 showed that journeys from the station had increased by 179% in the five years to 2008/09.[8]

Proposed Wealden Line reopening

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.[9] In 2008 the "Wealdenlink" presentation was published which gave new impetus to the campaign for reinstatement.[10] 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 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.[11]

References
  1. "Disused Stations". Subterranea Britannica.
  2. Network Rail (16 March 2010). "New Station at Uckfield Opens for Passengers". Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  3. Network Rail (2 July 2009). "Uckfield Passengers to Benefit from a New Station". Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  4. "Modular building transforms Uckfield station". Modern Railways. 67 (739): 8. April 2010.
  5. Uckfield News (17 March 2010). "New Uckfield rail station opens". Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  6. "Newly constructed station building opens at Uckfield" (PDF). Railway Herald (216). 22 March 2010. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 October 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  7. Tony McNulty (10 June 2004). "Lewes-Uckfield Rail Link". HC Deb, 10 June 2004, c495. House of Commons. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  8. Southern (17 March 2010). "Brand New Station Opens at Uckfield". Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  9. Hart, Brian. "Wealden Line Campaign". Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  10. Hart, Brian. "WealdenLink". Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  11. East Sussex County Council (20 October 2008). "Lewes-Uckfield rail link". Retrieved 31 March 2010.

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