Newly-redeveloped March railway station is inviting local residents and passengers to a coffee morning on Wednesday 5 July. Free hot drinks and snacks will be provided, alongside activities for children.
Hereward Community Rail Partnership (CRP) is organising the event, and hopes it will be a social space for local people and a source of information.
Rail managers and transport representatives will be on hand to answer questions about the train service and the station from 7am until 12pm. Volunteer group Friends of March Railway Station will open the station's community rooms to visitors from 9am until 12pm.
The group has raised a lot of money and carried out work over recent years to restore the old station room interiors. This includes a permanent model railway room, which will be open to visitors on Wednesday.
Greater Anglia has spent the last two years redeveloping the entire station, creating an open-plan ticket hall and waiting area, with accessible modern toilets, retail outlets on platform 1, and a larger, improved car park.
The Bee Friendly Trust and station adoption volunteers have planted hundreds of bee-friendly flowers, shrubs and trees to create green areas in the new car park.
Hereward CRP, which is managed by Fenland District Council alongside train operators, railway user groups, station adoption groups and local residents, and is running a survey to find out people's views about the redevelopment.
Fenland District Council's Railway Station Masterplans project delivered the redevelopment, using part of the £9.5million funding provided by the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority, chaired by Mayor Dr Nik Johnson, and supported by Greater Anglia.
The Masterplans project is also improving passenger facilities at the two other Fenland stations – Manea and Whittlesea – which are on the Hereward Line between Ely and Peterborough. It hopes that by making rail travel more appealing, the work will improve connections between the Fenland towns and other education and employment locations in the area, as well as benefiting the environment.
Beverly Bishop, Hereward Line CRP Officer, said: “Now that the station redevelopment is complete, we have a lovely large booking hall where we are able to host community events. We are hoping to encourage not only rail passengers, but also people from the community to come along and enjoy a free hot drink, cake and biscuits and have a chat.
“Everyone is welcome, and we'd love to see people who haven't yet visited the transformed station or travelled on a train in a while as we can help with lots of practical advice to build confidence and ideas for where to visit.
“The coffee morning is an inclusive event, open to all and a space where people can meet, chat and find out about active, sustainable travel.”
Cllr Chris Seaton, Chair of the Hereward CRP, Fenland District Council's Portfolio Holder for Transport and Chairman of the March Station Project Board, said: “We'd love to hear what people think to the redevelopment of the station, which was delivered through our Railway Station Masterplans Project, and also how facilities can be further improved in future.
“It's also a chance to find out more about the Hereward Community Rail Partnership which champions improvements to the Hereward Line, and at its stations at March, Manea and Whittlesea, and engages communities to help them get the most out of their railway.”
The best thing for Fenland would be to have the March Wisbech and March Spalding lines reopened
The latter would benefit the entire UK as it would free up capacity at the Peterborough bottleneck for freight