Great Western Coffee Shop

A group of enthusiastic volunteers who look after their local railway station are on track for a national award. Members of the Friends of Upwey Station regularly take a brush onto the platform to ensure it stays clean and tidy. They keep an eye on the area at night, ensure customers are kept informed and have campaigned to get more services to stop at the South West Trains-owned unmanned station which is served by both Bristol and London trains.

The group has been singled out for praise and have made the shortlist for the Best Station Adoption Group in the Community Rail Awards run by the Department for Transport and the Association of Community Rail Partnerships.

The Upwey team is part of the Heart of Wessex Rail Partnership^s Community Rail Working Party along the Bristol line which has also been shortlisted in the Outstanding Teamwork Award category.

On top of this, the Heart of Wessex Rail Partnership^s Local Food Train promotion earlier this year, when volunteers handed out local food to passengers, has been shortlisted for Best Community Rail Event at the awards.

Some of the Upwey Friends took part in this so they have contributed to all three awards.

Rail Partnership Office for the Heart of Wessex Catherine Phillips said: ^It is very exciting to get shortlisted for these prestigious awards.^

She added: ^The Friends of Upwey are very active contributors to both the Community Rail Working Party and to our promotional activities on the Heart of Wessex line run by First Great Western, in addition to working regularly with South West Trains to keep Upwey Station welcoming, clean and safe. They have achieved tremendous respect for their work from both train companies, and played the key role in restoring one of the services to Upwey that was lost last year as a result of a change to timetable schedules.

Station manager for South West Trains Nigel Gallichan said: ^The Friends of Upwey have worked closely with us to transform this unstaffed station into a safer, cleaner and more welcoming gateway to local train services.^

He added: ^This is an outstanding asset for the railway ^ we^d like to bottle this group^s magic and spread it around to our other unstaffed stations.^

The winners of the awards are announced next month.