Our thanks to Network Rail for station painting

Repainted walls and handrails at Walkden

Hats off to Network Rail who have repainted the stairway walls at Walkden as part of the roof repair project.

The walls of the stairs and booking hall had not been painted for many years and had become dirty and stained, while the red paint on the handrails was peeling and flaking away.

As our picture shows, the shiny new walls and handrails are a great improvement and give the station a much more inviting appearance. And from the way passengers rounded on kids suspected of recent graffiti damage to the station, the bright and clean walls are well appreciated by station users too !

As we understand the situation from previous discussions, repainting of the walls is the responsibility of the train operating company (Northern Rail). Network Rail’s decoration work is therefore even more appreciated as it was not their responsibility to tackle the job anyway.

The newly-retiled station roof at Walkden

The roof repairs, which started in August, are nearly complete and most of the scaffold will be removed this weekend, putting an end to some local kids’ dangerous use of it as a climbing frame.

Away from the public areas of the station Network Rail have installed a floor in a disused room which should provide lots of useful storage space for staff.

Police efforts pay dividends

Thanks to British Transport Police and the local Community Support Officers, anti-social behaviour and vandalism at the station has markedly declined in recent weeks.
Regular visits by uniformed and plain clothes officers have had the desired result, and station staff report a notable improvement in the overnight condition of the station – something FOWS have also noticed on our last few Sunday morning litter collections.

Transport cops spring into action at Walkden

If you’ve travelled through Walkden station at night recently you have probably seen the daily eyesores created by vandals shredding the protective yellow foam that is supposed to wrap around the scaffolding posts.

Earlier this week FOWS asked the British Transport Police for help tackling the problem and their response has been fantastic ! Officers have visited the station most evenings and taken details of teenagers caught climbing on the scaffold, amongst other misdemeanours.

We don’t like to see anyone getting into trouble, but petty vandalism and persistent littering have been the bane of Walkden station for years, spoiling the environment for passengers and staff, and pushing up costs for the railway (and ultimately passengers).

FOWS have repeatedly asked Northern Rail and GMPTE to install CCTV cameras to cut down vandalism and anti-social behaviour at the station, but neither organisation has agreed to take it on.

Walkden sunflowers bloom !

Sunflowers and daisies make a colourful scene on the Wigan platform at Walkden

The sunflowers donated by FOWS member and keen gardener Peter Hope are coming into flower and adding a striking dash of colour to the platforms at Walkden.

Unfortunately half of the 10 flowers Peter planted have been destroyed by vandals, but those that remain are adding a welcome splash of sunshine and colour to this wet summer.

Sunflowers suffer at the hands of vandals

Sadly, the sunflowers on the Manchester platform have suffered an attack of vandalism.

Click here for a reminder of how lovely they looked on Sunday.

We can only feel sorry for passengers who have enjoyed the sight of these beautiful plants surging toward the sun, and also for the individual responsible who clearly has some issues if they enjoy attacking pretty flowers !

Merseyrail show the way to secure stations

Congratulations to Merseyrail who have just become the first UK rail company to achieve “Secure Station” status for all stations on their network. This is a tremendous achievement - something people said couldn’t be done, but that has been achieved in just 4 years.

Secure station status means the station has CCTV and a variety of other design features and facilities intended to make the station as safe a place as possible for people to wait.

As users of the Northern Rail network around Manchester will be only too keenly aware, Northern Rail’s own efforts to improve station security lag some considerable way behind Merseyrail’s achievement. Even today no date has been set for installation of CCTV at Walkden.

Read more about Merseyrail’s success on their website News page.

A Sunday morning hangover …

One of our volunteers has been cleaning the station this morning – as he often does – and this is what he found …

“at station 0915 to 1030 cleared a full bag of rubbish. Cleared a Chicken Korma, the contents of someone’s stomach which had been thrown up on the side of one of the planters. Cleaned up as best I could without water.”

“Small firs on Manchester platform look to have been stolen for someone’s garden – I filled the holes with compost.”

Of course the vast majority of station users are decent people who would never dream of stealing public plants or creating such a mess, but what a shame a tiny, selfish minority want to spoil things for everyone else.