St Leonards (West Marina) railway station

St Leonards West Marina
Site of West Marina Station in the distance. The right hand track curves around the remains of the down platform.
Location
Place	West St Leonards
Area	Hastings, East Sussex
Grid reference	TQ787089
Operations
Original company	Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway
Pre-grouping	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway Southern Region of British Railways
Platforms	2
History
7 November 1846	Opened as Hastings & St Leonard's
13 February 1851	Renamed St Leonards
5 December 1870	Renamed St Leonards West Marina
1882	Rebuilt on adjacent site to the east
10 November 1962	Closed to goods traffic
10 July 1967	Closed to passengers
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

St Leonards West Marina is a disused railway station in the West St Leonards area of the borough of Hastings, East Sussex. Opened by the Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway in 1846 as part of what became the East Coastway Line, it was the first permanent station to serve the area and became part of a feud between two rival railway companies over access to nearby Hastings. Although ultimately inconvenient for local services, the station became an important goods railhead and the location of a motive power depot for locomotives working express services to London. The station was closed in 1967 and subsequently demolished, although in 2011 remnants of the down platform can still be seen.

On 27 June 1846, the Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway (BL&H) opened an eastward extension of its Brighton-Lewes line to a temporary station at Bulverhythe. Once a bridge over the River Asten had been completed, Bulverhythe was replaced on 7 November 1846 by a permanent station named Hastings & St Leonards which was situated a short distance to the east, 0.25 miles (0.40 kilometres) from the centre of Hastings.

The BL&H had powers to extend the line to a junction with the South Eastern Railway (SER) at Ashford, thereby creating a coastal route from Brighton to Dover of strategic military importance to the government. The SER took advantage of the government's desire for the line by offering to construct the section between Hastings and Ashford in return for powers to build the North Kent Line, which resulted in the government agreeing to authorise the Hastings-Ashford line provided the SER extended its Tonbridge-Tunbridge Wells line to Hastings. In view of the low revenue earning potential of a Hastings-Ashford line with Rye the largest settlement to be served, the BL&H agreed to transfer ownership of the section to the SER whilst retaining the right to exercise running powers as far as Hastings.