FRIENDS OF GLENFINNAN STATION NOMINATED FOR BENCHES AWARD!

West Highland Community Rail Partnership nominated Friends of Glenfinnan Station for the UK-wide Community Rail Network’s Small Projects Award. This category is for projects that cost less than £500, excl. volunteer hours.  Judges were looking for projects that deliver great value for money and that benefit the community AND the railway.

The Museum’s project was titled ’Are you sitting comfortably?’ Due to the infrequency of trains and the mushrooming popularity of Glenfinnan as a destination, large crowds of people often spend a long time waiting for trains at the station. Providing seats for most of them has been something of a mission for the museum, both for rail safety and passenger welfare reasons. Friends of Glenfinnan Station volunteers have therefore been working with the Museum Trust to make local use of the timber that still remained after the felling of over-mature trees below Station Road ten years ago, and that allowed for the building of the Museum car park.

New and refurbished heritage-style benches in keeping with the station seats originally inherited from Railtrack now adorn the platforms and the wider station area, providing seating for approximately 55—free of charge to Scotland’s Railway. Lack of seating at stations is a recognised barrier to the use of public transport. The Museum won a Bronze Community Rail Award for the benches at the station.