Great Western Coffee Shop

Students at the University of Plymouth have won a national award for their voluntary work to breathe life into rural railway stations.  The students' union won a top prize at the Higher Education Volunteering Awards at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground.

Volunteers have carried out more than a dozen regeneration and conservation projects on the Looe Valley and Tamar Valley branch lines.  Dozens of volunteers have helped create wildlife areas, install planters, repaint the old signal box at Bere Alston and construct raised beds.

The Rural Stations Project is a result of collaborative work between UPSU, Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership, First Great Western, and Network Rail.  It is the only collaboration between a university and local rail partnership in the country.