Giving over 400 bottles out, South Woodham Ferrers railway station adoption volunteers helped hot and bothered passengers to keep hydrated and also spread an important environmental message by discouraging people to use disposable plastic bottles. The initiative came to be after the installation of a new drinking water fountain at the station.

Both the drinking water fountain and reusable bottles saw funding from Essex & South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership and Mister Gees Foundation, which is a charity that funds projects that support the South Woodham Ferrers local community.

Jayne Sumner, Rail Engagement Manager for the Community Rail Partnership, said,

“The station adopters felt that a water dispenser would make a great asset to the station to help keep people hydrated on their journeys and help to reduce plastic waste, so we were really pleased to partner with the Mister Gees Foundation to help them achieve their wish.”

Alan Neville, Greater Anglia’s Customer and Community Engagement Manager, said:

“We are very grateful to the Essex & South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership and the Mister Gees Foundation for facilitating funding for the new water fountain.

“We have water fountains at several other stations on our network which have already proved very popular with customers, and we hope people in South Woodham Ferrers enjoy their free drinking water, too, during this spell of hot weather.

“We care about the environment, so we are delivering a number of projects to improve our energy efficiency and operate in a more sustainable manner – from installing LED lighting to recycling food waste, to providing free electric car charging points.

“The fountain at South Woodham Ferrers supports this aim by helping to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfill and oceans from single-use bottles.”

Greater Anglia became one of the very first rail operators in England to provide free water to passengers back in 2019 and also to install water fountains at its railway stations. The rail operator aims to cut the number of single-use plastic bottles and has seen over 300,000 bottles refilled throughout its network.