Shanklin station on the Isle of Wight is on South Western Railway‘s Island Line and is a beautiful Grade II listed Victorian station and has now been recognised over the highly commended Buxton station in Derbyshire, Hatch End station in North West London as well as many other well-loved stations in order to win ‘Station of the Year – Small’ award. 

The National Rail Awards are organised by RAIL magazine and are considered within the industry as the ‘Railway Oscars’. This year’s event took place on Monday the 10th of October at the prestigious London Grosvenor House Hotel and was hosted by BBC presenter Huw Edwards. 

The contest saw tough competition with the judges looking at each station, measuring them against a set criteria which took into consideration safety, infrastructure and customer-friendly presentation with a focus on initiative and innovation.  

Claire Mann, Managing Director of South Western Railway, commented: “I’m absolutely thrilled that Shanklin station on the Island Line has won the prestigious ‘Station of the Year’ award, following the £26 million transformation of the line undertaken last year.

“We are always striving to improve our customer experience and it’s great to get national recognition for our team’s hard work. Thank you to all those who worked so hard to achieve this success.”

The Island Line between Ryde Pier and Shanklin was reopened in November 2021 after a massive £26 million transformation of the lines trains, stations and infrastructure was carried out seeing South Western Railway’s brand new Class 484 fleet in action for the very first time.