Hertfordshire pupils adopt Abbey Line stations

Abbey Line Community Rail Partnership and Hertfordshire County Council have encouraged schools along the line to join its “Adopt a Station Project”.

This year saw Parkgate Junior School in Watford, and Herts-based Park Street Church of England Primary and How Wood Primary Schools getting involved because they run along the Abbey Line between St Albans Abbey and Watford Junction. 

Park Street

The schoolchildren visited the stations to see how they operate and then had a few weeks to come up with ways to improve them using pictures and drawings. 

The pupils also heard about the History of Bricket Wood station from the Bricket Wood Society whose usage goes back as 1858.

A workshop was then organised where the children presented their ideas including what their “ideal train station” would look like and learned about the Community Rail Project events such as Santa Express and the Community Rail Fun Day on May 31. 

At the end of the workshop the children received their adoption certificates with How Wood School paired with How Wood Station, Parkgate Junior School paired with Watford North Station and Park Street School paired with Park Street Station.

Parkgate

The project was supported by London North Western.
Edna Woname, partnership development officer and Val Male, principal rail officer at Hertfordshire County Council who both led the project, said: “We are really grateful to the schools who took part in the project and it was great to see the children have the opportunity to ride on the Abbey line and experience this. 

“They have also had the opportunity to work on a project which will see some of their work displayed at stations, our new line guide and at the National Awards so they should be very proud of themselves. 

“We certainly hope they also enjoyed working on the project.”

The Abbey Line Community Rail Partnership was formed in 2005 with the purpose of increasing usage of the line.