Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and the Bee Friendly Trust have installed one hundred ‘Homes for Nature’ at railway stations across the operator’s network.

GTR operates across a very large area, as it is the parent company of Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern.

The network carries one in five of all UK passengers, and extends to locations as far apart as Sussex and Norfolk.

GTR hopes that the Homes for Nature will boost biodiversity and provide protection for endangered species. One sixth of UK species are under threat of extinction.

Govia Thameslink Railway has been working with the Bee Friendly Trust, and last week, the two organisations put the finishing touches to twenty-four habitats at six stations.

The six stations hosting these habitats are Glynde, Plumpton and Berwick in East Sussex; Horley in Surrey; and Coulsdon South and Purley in Greater London. The latter two stations have also benefited from improvements to passenger facilities in recent years.

The operator had already revealed some of the Homes for Nature at Hertfordshire stations last year.

Each of the sites has two different types of bird boxes, as well as striped bee hotels for solitary insects. Each also has hibernacula, which are shelters filled with wood and timber which provide small animals and bugs with a place to live.

GTR and the Bee Friendly Trust will continue to work together, with the aim of increasing the number of Homes for Nature to two hundred. They are planning this as a celebration of Railway 200, the bicentenary of the first fare-paying passenger railway journey.

Homes for Nature are now established at twenty-six stations. Some of these have been created by the Bee Friendly Trust, while others are the result of work by station and community partners. Before this programme began, habitats for nature had already been installed at nineteen other stations.

The list of stations that will be hosting birds, bees, bugs and other animals can be found here.

“This unique collaboration between the Bee Friendly Trust and Govia Thameslink Railway has now provided 100 Homes for Nature across the network and we are on course to increase this to 200 in celebration of Railway 200.

“The birdboxes, bug hotels and hibernacula will provide homes for hundreds of creatures and improve the habitats around these stations. They will be of benefit not just to the creatures but to the rail users whose environments will be enriched.”

Dr Luke Dixon, Director at the Bee Friendly Trust