Published on: Thursday, 18 June 2015
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Reedham rail station will receive extra careand attention from community volunteers, as two new station adopters join theexisting team.
Local residents, Catherine Ford and ColinBrown, are joining Mike Stoker, Mike Warner and Ann Thompson to help out atReedham, and, as well as tending the station garden and seeking sponsorshipfrom local business, they have big plans to bring one of the disused stationwaiting rooms back into use to tell the story of the Norwich – Great Yarmouthline, the first railway in Norfolk
The team plans to start restoring the oldwaiting room on the Great Yarmouth / Lowestoft bound platform, which was builtin the late Victorian era, later this summer. The room will be painted in LNERheritage colours and will be used to display old photographs, information andmemorabilia about the railway line.
In the meantime the newly expanded teamwill concentrate on keeping the station gardens and car park in pristinecondition.
Adopter, Mike Warner, has landscaped thegardens, stocked the leaflet racks with information, kept the station clean andtidy and tended the flowers for the past eight years. He has been assisted byMike Stoker, who has connections with the station since childhood, for the pastfour years.
Last year, the adopters installed threebright murals on the disused station buildings depicting scenes of coast andcountryside, reflecting the diverse landscape that the line runs through.
The murals, along with flower tubs,landscaping of the station garden areas and the decorating of boarding to looklike station windows, create the feeling of a thriving and well-kept stationand a pleasant atmosphere for passengers as they wait for trains.
Mike Warner commented, “We are reallygrateful to everyone who has donated plants which has helped us to create ourextensive station gardens. We have a lot of plans for the station and willcontinue to work with Abellio Greater Anglia to bring about furtherimprovements in the future.”
Plants and hedging have been donated byBroadland District Council, the Humpty Dumpty Brewery, Pettits Animal AdventurePark and NENTA Train Tours.
Abellio Greater Anglia’s Area CustomerService Manager, James Reeve, said, “I’d like to welcome the new team membersat Reedham. The station continues to go from strength to strength thanks tothis huge community effort and we are very grateful for all their hard work andcreative ideas that have transformed the station.”
The ‘Adopt a Station’ scheme started in2003 and enables individuals or groups to adopt their local railway station andcontribute to its presentation and welfare for the benefit of the localcommunity.
The voluntary scheme was originally createdto improve lines of communication between the train operator and station usershowever, over the years it has grown to become much more, with station adoptersnow playing an active role in keeping stations looking good through inventivegardening projects, creative community art projects, taking part in station‘health checks’ or being the eyes and ears of their station.
Over the years, station adopters have alsoplayed a key role in raising money for new initiatives, such as improvedwaiting facilities or planting beautiful station gardens.
Abellio Greater Anglia now has over 183adopters at over 90 stations across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire andCambridgeshire.