Published on: Friday, 5 July 2019
Last updated: Friday, 5 July 2019
Passengers using four Essex rail stations can now help themselves to free water after train operator Greater Anglia installed water fountains, as part of a drive to reduce the number of single-use plastic bottles.
Water fountains have been installed at Wickford, Billericay, Shenfield and Witham railway stations, as part of an initiative which aims to reduce plastic waste.
Fountains can be found in the following locations:
- Wickford – platform 2
- Billericay – near the entrance to the footbridge
- Shenfield – platform 3
- Witham – platform 3
Last year, Greater Anglia became one of the first train operators in England to offer free water to passengers after installing a water fountain at Chelmsford station.
Fountains were then installed at Ipswich and Cambridge, followed by Colchester, which opened in June this year.
So far, Greater Anglia customers have refilled more than 100,000 water bottles using the refill points across the network.
Simone Bailey, Greater Anglia’s Asset Management Director, said: “Millions of people use these stations every year and we hope that by providing free water, it will help makes passengers’ journeys a little easier.
“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, to providing free electric car charging points.
“We already recycle as much of our waste as possible. We have increased our recycling by 71% over the past five years, but we are looking to increase that figure even further.”