Community Rail Awards 2025 now open for Entries! Click here to read more.

It’s Your Station

This category recognises and rewards the hard-working people who maintain station gardens, displays, notices, and the station environment, on a voluntary basis across the network. There is no overall category winner here, with entries instead being placed and judged across four different banding levels. A maximum of 6 of the highest scoring entries in each band will be shortlisted and a lead group will be recognised as outstanding at that level.

Entries in this category are assessed and points awarded over four sections: community, gardening, art & heritage and environment & sustainability, see full judging criteria below. The total points achieved will equate to one of four banding levels: bronze, silver, gold or platinum.

Following the judges' online assessments and video reviews, up to six entries in each banding level will be shortlisted. The highest-scoring group in each banding level will be announced at the Awards gala event and presented with a trophy and certificate.

Note: After the event, every group that entered this category will receive a PDF certificate confirming the banding level they achieved, even if they were not shortlisted.

Only open to current (paid/subscribed) Community Rail Network members, including station adoption/friends’ groups or community station groups. Member groups can nominate a stakeholder/interested party to submit an entry on their behalf, but the entry must clearly show this permission. Non-member entries will automatically be disqualified.

Essential requirements

  • Entries must describe the work you have done or are doing to improve your station garden and environment. Note: Extra credit will be given where there is also active community involvement.
  • You must include before and after images (relevant to when the work started) with your entry, and other suitable evidence, clearly showing the station environment and how it has been improved.

Important note: Our judges do not make personal visits to stations, so you must make sure that your entry is well supported by photographs and video footage, and coverage in media (printed and online where relevant) as this will be the only opportunity to showcase your station and the work you’ve been doing to the judges. To assist you with your submission, we've put together the following guidance for this category:

Download It's Your Station guidance

Judging criteria

You must provide evidence demonstrating how your group aligns with the following themes:

  • Community - inclusive of and represents local people. Engages with the local community to collaborate and participate in the planning and delivery of projects and in publicising its activities. You must provide clear demonstrable evidence of the impact of this work and the reaction of the community to it.
  • Gardening - station gardens and environments enhance the passenger experience – quality, colour, and variety of planting and changing displays are maintained and cared for throughout the year.
  • Art & Heritage - artwork that impacts the station, showing skill and imagination. Local artists, schools or other community groups involved in the design and delivery. Heritage installations have a railway (e.g. signage or other artefacts) or a local historical theme.
  • Environment & Sustainability - the group is improving the station environment by litter-picking, leaf-clearing, weeding platforms etc. Creating or maintaining green space, which addresses sustainability by rainwater harvesting, composting, recycling etc.

'It's Your Station' is sponsored by Merseyrail.

2026 Platinum Winner - Friends of Hindley Station

The Friends of Hindley Station have continued flying the flag for community rail ever since they were last awarded Platinum in this category in 2024.

The group, recently deemed ‘Outstanding’ in RHS’s It’s Your Neighbourhood Awards, regularly work with youth groups on educational ‘try the train’ trips and biodiversity projects, including supporting Scouts groups to work towards their Platforms for Change badge. Together, they plant pollinator-friendly perennials, collect and reuse rainwater, and create bird boxes and bug hotels. Work has even started on a community orchard.

The volunteers have fundraised for other community events, given talks to local groups and historic societies, and assisted in the development of rail trails. With the help of a local artist, the group commissioned a vibrant mural celebrating the town, as well as engaging 200 schoolchildren to create artwork for the station shelters on the theme of ‘Life is a Journey’.

The Friends’ relationship with Thrive CiC has flourished, supporting adults with learning difficulties to develop new skills and gain confidence through station-based activity. The produce grown by participants in the station allotment is used in their ‘life skills’ classes, and they’ve grown lavender and roses which have been used in the creation of soy wax melts, over 300 packs of which were distributed at Northern’s 2024 Community Conference.

Across so many key areas, from the creative to the sustainable, the volunteers have once again demonstrated how a small but mighty station group can create incredible impact for passengers and the wider community.

2026 Bronze Winner - Open Orchard Project at West Norwood Station

Open Orchard set out to transform a neglected patch of land on Platform 2 at West Norwood Station into a thriving, pollinator-friendly garden that would provide seasonal colour and interest for passengers, improve the station environment and contribute to a wider ‘green corridor’ across West Norwood.

The project began with planning sessions to design a garden suited to the unique challenges of the site. It was clear that the area had potential to support life, but the ground had never been maintained and was compacted and strewn with litter. Volunteers tackled this by terracing the area with logs, stabilising the soil and creating microhabitats for insects and other wildlife. Over two community planting sessions, volunteers and residents came together to clear the ground and install over 50 drought-tolerant, pollinator-friendly plants, more than 150 herbs and bulbs, and even a crab apple tree.

The impact of the project has been immediate and uplifting. The station feels brighter, friendlier and more connected to the community it serves, and passengers have praised the positive changes. Monthly maintenance sessions continue to bring people together to care for the space, ensuring the garden flourishes long term. The project has also drawn in new volunteers and sparked conversations about how other urban spaces can be reimagined in a way that is both practical and biodiverse.

The success of the West Norwood Station garden demonstrates that even small areas, when cared for by the community, can deliver beauty, ecological value and a strong sense of local pride.

Check out our 2025 bronze, silver, gold and platinum winners via our Hall of Fame.

Check out previous bronze, silver, gold and platinum winners of this category from 2017-2022.

Entries for our 2027 Awards open at 9am on Tuesday 1 September and close at 5pm on Wednesday 30 September 2026.

Check back then to submit your entry!