Good News Friday: Your weekly roundup of positive rail news!

Alderley Edge won the top award, being named ‘Cheshire Best Kept Station’ in 2023.

It follows praise for the station by the Royal Horticultural Society in October 2023 when its floral offering was recognised as ‘Outstanding’ by the UK’s leading garden charity.

The station has also recently seen investment in CCTV provision as part of a roll-out of 612 new cameras across the Northern network.

The awards, which are celebrating their 21^st anniversary this year, were presented by Professor Paul Salveson MBE in Northwich last week (Tues 12 March).

Also picking up an award was Brinnington station, which was named ‘Best Staffed Station’. The station was in the national media spotlight in 2023 following the success of a ‘Swap Shop’ created at the station for the local community by Northern colleagues Stewart Hall and Darin Astbury. 

Other Northern-managed stations that picked up awards were: Greenbank (Best Unstaffed Station), Rose Hill (In Bloom Award), Disley (Sustainability Award), Goostrey (Art Project Award) and Romiley (King’s Coronation Award).

Delamere won the Cheshire West and Chester Award, Glazebrook won the Halton & Warrington Award and Heaton Chapel won the special TfGM Award.

Stations that were Highly Commended in their categories included Marple (Community Rail Network Award for Community Engagement), Handforth (Best Staffed Station), Hale (King’s Coronation Award) and Sandbach (Cheshire East Award).

For more information about the awards, visit: www.bestkeptstations.org.uk/2023-winners.

Craig Harrop, regional director for Northern, said: “I’d like to congratulate all my colleagues and the volunteer groups at stations across Cheshire that were recognised at the awards last week.

“Their commitment to excellence in terms of the presentation, operation and overall customer experience of their stations is remarkable and the awards are a great opportunity to highlight their hard work.”

Speaking at the awards ceremony last week, Mark Barker, chair of Cheshire Best Kept Stations, said: “What volunteers do is amazing; the passion, commitment, ingenuity, resourcefulness and sheer hard work has improved your stations for passengers, the community, the railway and for yourselves.”

In a rallying call to volunteer groups across the county, he added: “Please keep on doing what you are doing!”

Steaming ahead: Lumo strengthens pioneering partnership with Beamish Museum

Popular open access train operator Lumo has renewed its partnership with Beamish Museum which is the North East of England’s most visited tourist attraction according to a new report by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA).

Lumo will carry thousands of people to the region this week as English Tourism Week gets in full swing, celebrating the quality and value of English tourism.

Beamish Museum welcomed Lumo as the very first ‘Business Champion’ member as part of a pioneering partnership established in 2023. To coincide with English Tourism Week, Lumo has reaffirmed its commitment to Beamish and helping further support the region’s visitor economy.

Martijn Gilbert, Managing Director at Lumo, said: “Lumo’s unique partnership helps support, protect and celebrate the rich railway heritage showcased at Beamish Museum. We’re proud of how we’re partnering with Beamish Museum to bring the past to life for future generations.

“As well as attracting thousands of people to find out about how our region helped shape Britain’s railways, we’re excited to be helping more people visit the region and support the vibrant tourist economy during English Tourism Week and throughout the year.” 

Lumo, based in Newcastle, operates an entirely electric train service of high-speed Hitachi trains built in County Durham; a demonstration of the progress over the years since the first passengers were carried by train almost 200 years ago in the region.

Liz Peart, Partnerships Officer at Beamish Museum, said: “We’d like to thank Lumo for choosing to renew their Business Champions membership for the coming year, we are delighted to have their continued support. 

“Our Business Friends scheme is a valuable additional income stream for the museum which is a registered charity.  Our staff and volunteers really do appreciate all the partnerships we develop with local North East businesses as they enable us to continue to deliver our range of activities for everyone from school children to older people and to ensure we can keep telling the stories of everyday life in North East England.  We’d love to hear from any other businesses who would like to find out more about joining Business Friends of Beamish and, like Lumo, help to support the museum’s work.”

Beamish Museum plans to open a range of new exhibits this year, including the recreation of The Grand cinema, from Ryhope in Sunderland, which will give visitors a chance to experience a trip to the pictures in the 1950s. The cinema will be recreated, incorporating as many elements and features of the original building as possible, and brought to life including screening films, period newsreels and adverts.

The positive economic contribution of Lumo was assessed by an independent report launched last month. The combined monetised benefits of Lumo are set to deliver between £470 and £740 million in economic benefits through its faster journeys, industry employment and fare savings for customers as well as continuing to attract more people from other modes such as road and air.