East Hill Cliff Railway

The East Hill Cliff Railway is a funicular railway in Hastings, a seaside town on the south coast of England. It rises up East Hill, linking the seafront with Hastings Country Park, and its upper station stands high above the Old Town and Rock-a-Nore. From the carriages visitors look down on The Stade, where the largest beach-launched fishing fleet in Europe works each day. The line was opened in 1902 and rebuilt in the 1970s to run on electricity instead of water tanks. The railway is now the steepest funicular in the United Kingdom after other local lines closed. It carries up to sixteen passengers in each car and its gradient reaches seventy-eight per cent. In 2007 a control fault caused damage to both cars and stations, but after a full refurbishment the line reopened in 2010. Hastings Borough Council owns and operates the railway, and a model of it can be seen in Brighton’s toy museum. A ride lasts only a few minutes but the climb rewards visitors with wide views over the town and coast. The upper station sits inside Hastings Country Park, where paths lead through grassland and woodland to the cliff edge. From here the eye travels across the beach, the fishing huts and the English Channel beyond.