Sellafield railway station

Sellafield
General information
Location	Sellafield, Copeland England
Coordinates	54°25′00″N 3°30′38″W / 54.4166451°N 3.5104538°W / 54.4166451; -3.5104538
Grid reference	NY020034
Owned by	Network Rail
Managed by	Northern Trains
Platforms	2
Tracks	2
Other information
Station code	SEL
Classification	DfT category F1
History
Original company	Whitehaven and Furness Junction Railway
Pre-grouping	Furness Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway British Rail (London Midland Region)
Key dates
21 July 1849	Opened as Sellafield and Calderbridge
1955	Renamed Sellafield
Passengers
2018/19	0.242 million
Interchange	68
2019/20	0.260 million
Interchange	120
2020/21	62,524
Interchange	41
2021/22	0.130 million
Interchange	142
2022/23	0.137 million
Interchange	126
Location Sellafield Location in Copeland, Cumbria Show map of the former Borough of Copeland Sellafield Location in Cumbria, England Show map of Cumbria
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Sellafield is a railway station on the Cumbrian Coast Line, which runs between Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness. The station, situated 35 miles (56 km) north-west of Barrow-in-Furness, serves Sellafield in Cumbria. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.

The station, which dates from 1850, is a busy freight location, because much of the nuclear waste for Sellafield's THORP nuclear fuel reprocessing plant is carried there by train from the docks in Barrow-in-Furness, or from rail-connected nuclear power stations elsewhere in the UK. The facility also generates significant commuter traffic for the railway, with workers travelling by train from nearby towns and villages.^[1]

The station is at the end of the single-line section from Whitehaven, which is operated using the electric key token system. From there, the line south towards Ravenglass and Barrow is double track, except for the final section between Park South Junction (south of Askam) and Barrow, which was reduced to a single track in the late 1980s.

The station configuration is unusual in that the southbound ('up' line) is bi-directional through the station and has platform faces on both sides.^[2] However, only the eastern platform face is used, the other side being fenced off. This allows trains from the south to terminate and turn back without having to enter the single-line section to St Bees. The signal box controlling the layout is located at the north end of the station, whilst the exchange sidings for the plant, and the loco depot used by Direct Rail Services freight trains, are to the south. There are two water cranes at the station, one at each end.^[3]

The station used to be the southern terminus of the former Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway line from Egremont, from August 1869 until the line's closure in March 1964.^[4]