West Bay railway station was the terminus of the

Bridport Railway The Bridport Railway was a railway branch line that operated in the county of Dorset in England. It connected Bridport with the main line network at Maiden Newton, and opened on 12 November 1857. It was extended to West Bay in 1884, but the ex ...

in western

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. In 1879, the Great Western Railway, who held the operating licence for the original Bridport Railway (which ran as far as Bridport town), decided to extend the railway to Bridport Harbour. Construction started in 1883, and the line opened on 31 March 1884. The station was called ''West Bay'' by the GWR in order to encourage holiday traffic. The line between West Bay and Bridport closed to passengers in 1930, and operated for goods services only until its final closure in 1962.

The site today

Old railway station at West Bay - geograph

After many years as the office of a boat yard, in 1995 the station was restored with a short length of track at the platform. The station building has operated sporadically as a cafe since then. From West Bay, a section of the former track bed can now be walked into

Bridport Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England, inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the Asker. Its origins are Saxon and it has a long history as a rope-making centre. On the coast and wit ...

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