Two silvers and a bronze for Southern at national Community Rail awards

Three of Southern’s community projects have been recognised at this year’s Community Rail awards. The awards, organised by the Association of Community Rail Partnership Awards, recognise the unsung heroes and heroines of the community rail world, acknowledging their hard work and dedication. It includes a focus on projects which bring together train companies, local community groups and passengers, all to enhance the travelling experience.

Southern achieved second place in each of the following categories:

Community Art Schemes – Renewable and Small Projects: Purley station subway art mural.

This project, which was suggested by a member of the station staff, saw Southern workwith the local John Fisher school to produce a stunning piece of art to brighten up the station’s subway. The school children used the local town and its location as the inspiration for a range of designs and then worked closely with the station team to refine and complete the mural.

Most Enhanced Station Building – Development of Hassocks station.

Over recent years Hassocks station has been transformed, with a brand new building, which is both modern and blended into the local area, and made accessible, with new lifts. All of this was designed by working closely with the local Resident’s Association and the station and lifts even include tailored brickwork to match it into the surrounding area.

Alongside this the station’s partnership has provided beautiful flowers and the new cycle hub includes a community-run bike hire shop.

Southern was also presented with third place for the following:

Passengers Matter – This Is Me campaign

This innovative campaign brought together feedback from passengers with access needs to create posters, leaflets and videos. It includes a focus on what Southern’s assistance process helps individuals to do, as well as information on how staff can tailor their service to particular needs. For staff, this material became part of the training and team brief process. The work was also used to promote the assistance services Southern offers to passengers. The campaign has been extremely well received, with the number of people booking assistance increasing, whilst feedback has shown that we are delivering this service to an even higher standard.

Community Investment and Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Andy Harrowell, said: “At Southern we are committed to working with the communities we serve. From working with young people, local group and passengers we are always looking for ways we can tailor the environment of our stations to individual areas. It’s wonderful that three of our projects have been recognised at the awards and we are very proud of the hard work of everyone involved. The work at Hassocks station has really part it at the heart of the community and the mural in Purley’s subway adds fantastic colour in a very local way. At the same time This Is Me is our passengers talking to our staff and others about how we can important our assistance service is to them. As a result of this project we’ve seen some fantastic successes in this area and excellent passenger feedback.”