A TRAIN station will close today, a staggering 14 years since a passenger train last pulled into the seaside stop.

A single daily service heading to Brighton called at the Newhaven Marine "ghost station" between 2016 and early 2019, but no passengers were able to get on or off the train.

Dubbed a "parliamentary train", this once-a-day occurrence was necessary for the station to remain officially open.

However, the site has long been in a state of disrepair with piles of rubble where the station buildings used to be.

Former transport minister and ex-Lewes MP Norman Baker described the consultation as a “joke”.

“I was thinking about replying to the consultation and asking Network Rail to open it up again as Newhaven Rubble.”

Speaking to The Argus newspaper earlier this year, he said: “The station was demolished years ago and now they’re holding a consultation to close it.

Following a Department for Transport consultation launched in January, Network Rail finally announced plans to shut the station, saying it would be closed to today.

The consultation stated: "By closing the station, Network Rail would be able to focus rail industry resources on improving the passenger rail service in this area and support regeneration of the port of Newhaven and the surrounding area in partnership with East Sussex County Council.

"The track will remain as a siding for berthing trains, as now, but also for freight train access to Newhaven Port where a new dock and freight handling facility is due to open."

Newhaven Marine is one of three railway stations in the town, alongside Newhaven Town and Newhaven Harbour.

First opened in 1886 as “Newhaven Harbour Boat Station”, it used to provide access to the Newhaven ferry terminal.

However, this was moved north to a section of the port closer to Newhaven Town station in the 1980s, and passenger services into Newhaven Marine were slowly reduced until 2006.

In that year, services were suspended following safety concerns over the dangerous condition of the station canopy.

No train carrying passengers would call at the station again, and both the canopy and station building were demolished in 2017.

Today, is the day earmarked for its overdue closure.