page_title: Eastbourne
section_title: Transport
hierarchical_section_title: Eastbourne / Transport
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Eastbourne railway station
context_page_description: Eastbourne is a town, seaside resort and borough in the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex on the south coast of England, 19 miles east of Brighton. Eastbourne is immediately to the east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the larger Eastbourne Downland Estate.
  With a seafront consisting largely of Victorian hotels, a pier and a Napoleonic era fort and military museum, Eastbourne was developed at the direction of the Duke of Devonshire from 1859 from four separate hamlets. It has a growing population, a broad economic base and is home to companies in a wide range of industries.
  Though Eastbourne is a relatively new town, there is evidence of human occupation in the area from the Stone Age. The town grew as a fashionable tourist resort largely thanks to prominent landowner, William Cavendish, later to become the Duke of Devonshire. Cavendish appointed architect Henry Currey to design a street plan for the town, but not before sending him to Europe to draw inspiration. The resulting mix of architecture is typically Victorian and remains a key feature of Eastbourne.
context_section_description: Eastbourne is connected by road to London by the A22, and to Brighton and Hove and Hastings by the nearby A27. The car is the most used form of transport in the town, with only 6% of journeys taken by bus; the local council transport plan aims to reduce the amount of car usage. Bus services within Eastbourne have been provided by Stagecoach Group under the name Stagecoach in Eastbourne since November 2008, when the company acquired Eastbourne Buses, a service run by the local council, and subsequently the independent company Cavendish Motor Services. Eastbourne Buses had been formed in 1903 by the County Borough of Eastbourne, who were the first local authority in the world authorised to run motor buses. As well as local journeys within the town, Stagecoach also runs routes to Polegate, Hailsham, Tunbridge Wells, Uckfield and East Grinstead at various frequencies, while the two routes to Hastings via Bexhill are run by Stagecoach South East from Hastings. The other main operator into Eastbourne is Brighton & Hove, owned by the Go-Ahead Group, which runs frequent services seven days a week from Brighton via Seaford and Newhaven. Limited numbers of additional buses are run by the Cuckmere Buses, and a regular National Express coach service operates daily from London's Victoria Coach Station.
  The main railway station is situated in the town centre and is served by Southern. The present station (the town's third), designed by F. D. Bannister, dates from 1886. It was originally on what was termed the Eastbourne Branch from Polegate. There was a rarely used triangular junction between Polegate and the now-closed Stone Cross which allowed trains to bypass the Branch; the track has now been lifted. Also on the erstwhile Branch is Hampden Park railway station to the north of the town. Regular services along the coast have invariably served Eastbourne. All trains, because of the layout, have to pass through Hampden Park once in each direction. This has the effect of making the Hampden Park level crossing very busy. Indeed, it is thought to be the busiest in the country. Regular services are to London Victoria, Gatwick Airport, Hastings and Ashford International and a commuter service to Brighton. Trains leave from London Victoria to Eastbourne with a journey time of 1hr 36mins. A miniature tramway once ran a mile across "the Crumbles" (then undeveloped) from near Princes Park/Wartling Road towards Langney Point. It opened in 1954 but ceased operation in 1970, relocating to Seaton in Devon after the owners had fallen out with the council; it is now the Seaton Tramway.
caption: Eastbourne railway station
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