National Express East Anglia, Paston College and the Bittern Line Community Rail Partnership have won a Community Rail Award.
The Norfolk partners won the ‘Passengers Matter’ category for their work to increase student travel on the Bittern Line.
Work was undertaken to promote the train service within the college.
Paston College also amended their times to fit in better with the train service, and the college also undertook to provide mini- buses and taxis to transport students to Hoveton and Wroxham station, from where they could join the Bittern line train service to North Walsham station.
The initiative has led to an increase in the numbers of students using the train service and thereby cutting their carbon footprint when travelling to and from the college.
James Steward National Express East Anglia’s Station Manager said:
“I am delighted with the award; together Paston College and National Express East Anglia have worked hard to encourage travel to the college by train.
“The initiative has been hugely successful and many more students travel by train than ever before.
“This Community Rail Award illustrates our deep-seated commitment to creating sustainable local train services.
“We will continue to work with our partners and take a proactive approach to improving our stations and train service still further in the future.”
Peter Mayne, Paston College Principle said:
“We were absolutely delighted to receive the award, it recognises a highly successful project which has attracted many students to Paston, and made travel to learn journeys for more than 10% of our students just so much easier.
“I am very grateful to James Steward and Jonathan Denby from National Express East Anglia for their support in the project.”
The award was presented to National Express East Anglia’s Station Manager James Steward and Paston College Principle Peter Mayne at the ACORP Community Rail Awards 2011, held on Friday 23 September at the City Hall, Sheffield.
