IT looks like the end of the line for Trimley's century-old railway station.A second attempt to have the building listed has failed – and all that remains open to villagers is a last-ditch appeal to its owners to keep it.

IT looks like the end of the line for Trimley's century-old railway station.

A second attempt to have the building listed has failed – and all that remains open to villagers is a last-ditch appeal to its owners to keep it.

Network Rail had said the station buildings would be demolished last spring because the property is too dangerous to leave standing.

Years of neglect, attacks by vandals and deterioration in its structure mean the building is too expensive to maintain and is no longer safe.

But Trimley St Mary Parish Council asked the Department of Media, Culture and Sport if the building could be "listed" for its architectural merit.

The first application was rejected, but then a second one was lodged after it was discovered it was the last surviving station built by the Great Eastern Railway.

However, parish councillor Bryan Frost said this was also not enough to change the authorities' view of the building and allow it to be kept and restored and found a new use.

"Our appeal against the refusal to list the building has now been turned down because the station is still not considered to be a sufficiently early example of a station to warrant listing," he said.

"All we can do now is speak to Network Rail to ask their intentions for the future of the building."

Network Rail, which plans to bulldoze the station and place a 4ft 6in wooden picket fence across the gap, said it would have cost up to £100,000 to restore the dilapidated building.

The station was constructed in 1891, just 14 years after the Ipswich-Felixstowe line was built, and was manned for many years.

New uses have been sought and it did once have planning permission for a restaurant and wine bar but this project was never implemented.

The village has an hourly passenger service and this will not be affected by the loss of the buildings.