The Community Rail Network has shortlisted a Hertfordshire community rail project for a national award.
The New River Line Community Rail Partnership, which supports the rail line between Hertford East and Broxbourne, worked with Greater Anglia to refurbish the waiting room at St Margarets station in Hertfordshire.
The project is now on the shortlist for the ‘Community and Creative Projects and Station Arts' category at the Community Rail Awards.
The revamped waiting room includes a book swap area, which residents of the local village had asked for, and a mural featuring the work of a local photographer.
It opened in March last year, to what Greater Anglia describes as “an overwhelmingly positive response from the local community”.
St Margaret's, which serves the villages of Stanstead St Margarets and Stanstead Abbotts, also opened a local history board last year.
The station, is twenty miles down the line from London Liverpool Street and is located between Rye House and Ware stations.
The Community Rail Awards, now in their 19th year, recognise the important work carried out by an army of dedicated individuals, often volunteers, who work across Britain's rail network to make stations welcoming spaces for passengers and visitors alike.
Alongside this, many of the groups carry out vital community engagement work with schools, colleges, and other local groups to help educate and secure passengers of the future, which is critical to ensuring railways are an inclusive, sustainable, healthy way to travel.
The Community Rail Network will announce the winners of its awards at a ceremony in Swansea on Saturday 18 March.
Katie Goldthorpe, New River Line Community Rail Partnership Officer, said, “The ‘Art and Literature in the Waiting Room' project has resulted in a beautiful waiting space that can be enjoyed by everyone. It was really well received by members of the local community and has helped to brighten people's journeys.
“I'm thrilled that the project has been shortlisted for this award.”
Alan Neville, Greater Anglia's Customer and Community Engagement Manager, said, “We are really proud of our community rail partnerships and thrilled that the work that they do across the region to support communities, promote sustainable travel and help our region's branch lines to thrive has been shortlisted at the Community Rail Awards.
