NEWS RELEASE
ISLE OF WIGHT COMMUNITY RAIL PARTNERSHIP
24th September 2009
Grant for Sandown Railway Station Ensures
£80,000 Makeover!
The Isle of Wight Community Rail Partnership has been able to help Island Line Trains secure an £80,000 grant from the Railway Heritage Trust to start the anticipated renovation and repair of ground floor space at Sandown Station.
It has been a long time frustration for the town, Island Line Trains and the CRP to attract partners to the station to put in services and organisations that would best suit the community and Island Line Trains’ passengers.
During the past few years the partnership have looked at the feasibility of a number of potential partners. In the meantime Island Line Trains and the CRP have spent considerable time and money repainting the station in heritage colours, installing heritage signs, replacing platform seating, floral displays and the installation of a new waiting shelter on the Ryde platform. These improvements, along with the successful landscaping project and sculpture initiative from artists and local school children have certainly gone a long way to enhance both the front and rear of the station. They were also accepted as the match funding to secure the capital needed to bring the ground floor into the 21st century with a stylish renovation to lease, the money of which will go to further support projects from the CRP.
It is hoped that the renovation will be completed early in the New Year, This will be followed by a public consultation to ascertain what passengers and the community would like to see in place at the station. This could be either a mixture of businesses’ or community organisations and service providers that can be sustainable in a station with great access and plentiful parking. Rail Development Officer Bobby Lock said of the project;
“Island Line Trains and the Community Rail Partnership are delighted with this grant. This will enable the Victorian station to receive a makeover that it and the community deserve. The station has great accessibility to schools and the Ryde, Shanklin corridor. The renovation will allow the station to be open and at the hub of the community with the possibility of tenants being able to apply for further Railway Heritage grant funding to support their station initiatives.”