Jayne Sumner, manager of the Essex & South Suffolk CRP (ESSCRP), is retiring from her role after 15 years working in community rail. For this special article, Jayne’s colleagues have kindly provided some reflections, celebrating Jayne and all that she’s achieved.

June Povey, community rail officer for the Flitch and Gainsborough Lines (ESSCRP)

Sadly, the start of this year saw us say farewell to Jayne Sumner, manager of Essex & South Suffolk CRP since 2011. Under her management, ESSCRP has gone from strength to strength. Ours was the first community rail partnership to gain accreditation from the Department for Transport, and then later an Outstanding Achievement to Community Rail trophy at the 2023 Community Rail Awards.

There are a very strong and active group of station adopters whose impact can be seen across the 42 Greater Anglia stations in Essex. Her can-do approach has helped support them in their ambitions, of which there are many, and the adopters expressed their appreciation for her at our November Thank You event.

Jayne has been the driving force behind many train events, both for the travelling public, and for charities who support disadvantaged groups – and she always manages to get the whole team dressed up, including herself as Harry Potter!

Thankfully she is not saying goodbye completely, as she and her partner Mark are going to be the station adopters at the newly opened Beaulieu Park Station. Twelve planters are already on order for Jayne to add her signature colour and creativity to this station!

Jane Stewart, community rail officer for the Mayflower and Sunshine Coast Lines (ESSCRP)

Yes, we lost Jayne at the start of the year, but Jayne being Jayne, she has us pretty much all organised for the coming year!

The station adopters across our lines will agree that Jayne was always smiling, bubbly, and would bend over backwards to get things done – be it a big project or just acquiring a dustpan and brush.

We started doing ‘open stations’ a couple of years back, one open station every month along our six lines throughout the summer from April to September. Adopters were invited from all over the county, so they could swap station stories, planting information and make contacts across the community. Her cakes were quite legendary, and she would always make a batch for each event.

A significant project I worked with Jayne on was our Railway 200 Harwich Town Station community garden, which we transformed from a piece of disused land into a thriving community space. We worked together to get the garden built and it was opened on the 27 September with local dignitaries, Greater Anglia staff, station adopters, local community groups and of course residents and passengers.

I know how proud Jayne was of the Railway 200 book she created with the help of David, one of our adopters. It has proved very popular among schools and children’s groups and engaged so many more people with the railway.

*

Keep up to date with future news, projects and events from the Essex & South Suffolk CRP via their website.