Train operator TransPennine Express (TPE) has installed dozens of bird and bat boxes at nine of its stations, aiming to provide additional habitats for native wildlife.

Fifty boxes have been installed on buildings, walls and trees at Yarm, Northallerton, Thirsk, Hull, Cleethorpes, Grimsby Town, Barnetby, Scunthorpe and Stalybridge stations.

The operator has used different types of boxes, which it hopes will encourage a variety of different species. It wants its stations to become home to a variety of bat species, and to species of birds including robins, blackbirds, wrens, wagtails, swallows, and swifts.

Last year, TransPennine Express carried out several improvements across its stations to benefit wildlife. These included installing pollinator-friendly planters at thirteen stations in Yorkshire.

The operator has also installed bug hotels and carried out a significant landscape planting scheme at Thirsk. Its staff also helped staff at Huddersfield’s Greenhead Park on Earth Day.

TPE says that it is taking these environmental initiatives in order “to lead and enable sustainable tourism and transport across the North of England and into Scotland through its commitment to sustainability”.

More information about TransPennine Express’s sustainability and biodiversity work is available on the train operator’s website.

“We are committed to building a more sustainable railway, and this is just one of the many projects at our stations across the TPE network that focus on biodiversity.”

“With a lack of natural habitat space across many of our stations, bird and bat boxes are a simple way to provide additional places for them and we look forward to monitoring their use over the coming months.”

“We’re planning to install more bat and bird boxes in the future, along with several other exciting biodiversity improvements as part of our plan to create spaces that are good for nature across our network.“

Steve Gilder, Environment Delivery Lead at TransPennine Express