Volunteers Spruce Up Award Winning Station Garden

Railway workers from the Wigan to Bolton electrification upgrades have swapped track for trowels to help at a community garden in Hindley.

Thirteen workers from Network Rail, train operator Northern and contractors Murphy and Kier spent six hours on Wednesday 18th October helping the Friends of Hindley maintain the station’s award-winning flowerbeds.

“It’s been great to get out and work together with members of the community as a way to thank them for their patience after all of our disruptive work in the area this year,” Sarah Bull, Network Rail sponsor, said.

“Fortunately our work in Hindley is nearly finished with the station platform improvements and new bridge built to allow for newer, greener trains to one day run between Wigan and Bolton,” she added.

The day involved weeding, strimming, cutting back overhanging branches, painting and tidying up the space ahead of the winter.

The rail companies volunteered their time to say thank you to local people impacted by the major railway upgrades this year.

“We really appreciate the days where Network Rail, Northern and the contractors are here to give us a hand,” Sheila Davidson, from the Friends of Hindley Station, said. “It’s a huge garden on both sides of the tracks, plus our allotment, so there’s lots of work to do, but the team did a great job.”

The works closed nearby road Ladies Lane  for several months over the summer; they demolished and rebuilt the bridge, and improvements made at the station, as part of a £78m investment to upgrade a 6.5-mile stretch of railway to enable electric trains to run between Wigan and Bolton in the future.

While Ladies Lane reopened in September, some work to the sides of the bridge and embankments is still taking place.