The line and station became part of British Rail in 1948, but closed on 7 March 1966.

Meanwhile, Claude Lane, and his company Modern Electric Tramways, had been operating a 2 ft (610 mm) gauge tramway in the town of Eastbourne since 1953, but by the mid-1960s the growth of the town's road system began to threaten the tramway and Claude Lane began to look for a new site.

Tramway services started, using a wider gauge of 2 ft 9 in (838 mm), on the southern section of the line in 1970, and reached Colyford in the following year.

None of the other buildings of the railway station survive, although remnants of the original high platforms remain in places.

The line operates a daily service between Easter and the end of October.