East Anglia’s rail station adoption community initiative reaches 20-year milestone

Norfolk and Suffolk and, over the years, through successive train operators, has now expanded to cover the whole of the region. Starting with just a handful of local people, some of whom had been tending to their local rail station since long before the scheme launched, there are now over 300 station adopters across the region.

Greater Anglia’s Station Adoption scheme enables individuals or groups to adopt their local railway station and contribute to its use and welfare for the benefit of their community. Station adopters work with Greater Anglia and, on some branch lines, also with the local community rail partnership, to bring about improvements or care for gardens and floral displays to benefit local wildlife and make stations more welcoming.

One of the big successes of the scheme has been the creation of 61 station gardens across the network, providing a vital additional habitat for local wildlife which, as well as making the stations more attractive and welcoming, contributes to human wellbeing too.

A scheme to get individuals and communities in East Anglia involved with their local rail stations is celebrating 20 years of brightening up stations across the region.

The Station Adoption initiative, now managed by Greater Anglia, was officially launched on 3 March 2003 by Anglia Railways in

The gardens, some of which have been developed over many years, are becoming havens for local wildlife populations – with the railway increasingly being recognised by ecologists as a ‘green corridor’ which provides a sanctuary for many different kinds of flora and fauna.