Passengers using South Woodham Ferrers Station are now able to refill their water bottles for free after the installation of a new water fountain.

The fountain has been funded by the Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership (CRP) and the Mister Gees Foundation, a charity which funds projects of benefit to the South Woodham Ferrers community. The charity has also produced some re-fillable bottles to give out to local people.

In 2019, Greater Anglia became one of the first train operators in England to offer free water to passengers after installing water fountains at railway stations as part of a drive to reduce the number of single-use plastic bottles. So far, more than 300,000 bottles have been refilled across its network.

Jayne Sumner, Rail Engagement Manager for the CRP, 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 and South Suffolk CRP and the Mister Gees Foundation for facilitating funding for the new water fountain. The 11 other fountains on our network have already proven very popular with customers, and we hope people in South Woodham Ferrers enjoy their free drinking water, too, as the weather warms up.

“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.”

You can find out more about the work of the Essex and South Suffolk CRP via their website.