NEARLY a quarter of a million pounds has been spent on a makeover at St Albans Abbey Station. Rail operator London Midland, the county council and volunteers have joined forces to spruce up the station at the bottom of Holywell Hill which serves the Abbey

NEARLY a quarter of a million pounds has been spent on a makeover at St Albans Abbey Station.

Rail operator London Midland, the county council and volunteers have joined forces to spruce up the station at the bottom of Holywell Hill which serves the Abbey Flyer line.

Improvements include the installation of CCTV, planters, modern lighting, a ticket vending machine, new information display cases and signage. There is also a new waiting shelter, more bicycle storage and new seating on the platform.

The funding has also paid for a barrier to divide the car park from the railway and the marking out of parking spaces including the creation of a disabled parking space and a fence to cordon off the platform from the surrounding land.

A new pavement has been laid by Groundwork Hertfordshire between the station and the road so that passengers no longer have to negotiate a muddy track to get to the trains.

Community artist Emily Fuller worked with local school, St Peter's JMI in Cottonmill Lane, to design and install award-winning mosaics which have come in for plenty of praise from passengers on their way to the platform.

The station also benefitted from voluntary service freely given by staff of St Albans firm Faber Maunsell who cleared rubbish and cut back vegetation on the site.

�150,000 of the cost came from the county council's passenger transport unit with London Midland adding �40,000 and the Community Rail Partnership providing an additional �35,000 to fund the new pavement, mosaic, landscaping and planters.

Groundwork Hertfordshire project-managed the scheme.

The county council's executive member for environment, Stuart Pile, said: "We hope that more of the local community will use the Abbey Line which continues to be a crucial link to Watford from St Albans."

And London Midland managing director Steven Banaghan added: "We're so impressed with developments here that St Albans is now a model for London Midland's other unstaffed stations."

Further work is planned including the introduction of a real-time visual information display and a phone help point.