Free water for passengers using South Woodham Ferrers railway station

Published on: Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Last updated: Wednesday, 13 July 2022

Last updated 13 July

Above: South Woodham Ferrers station adopters with the new water dispenser. Credit: Essex & South Suffolk CRP.

Passengers using South Woodham Ferrers rail 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 & South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership 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.

Jayne Sumner, Rail Engagement Manager for the Community Rail Partnership, 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 & South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership and the Mister Gees Foundation for facilitating funding for the new water fountain.

“The 12 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.”

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.