Friends of Handforth Station were delighted and surprised to receive a Cheshire Best Kept Stations Award given the planned installation of a pair of lifts means that no new infrastructure may be installed either at platform or at concourse level at the moment.
At the Cheshire Best Kept Stations (CBKS) awards ceremony, held on Tuesday 12th March, FoHS received a Highly Commended designation in the 2023 Northern Best Staffed Station category.
Mike Bishop (president of FoHS) said "In July 2023 FOHS sent a letter to Transport Focus and London Travelwatch arguing for the retention of a staffed ticket office at Handforth and organised a demonstration outside the station to the same end. It was very gratifying subsequently to learn that plans to close ticket offices on a national basis had been abandoned.
"It is now doubly gratifying to find that FoHS have been awarded a Highly Commended designation in the 2023 Northern Best Staffed Station category. It means that, since 2015 (when the line was closed for major engineering works) FoHS have achieved an unbroken run of awards at CBKS ceremonies.
"Until our lifts are installed FoHS will concentrate on making the interior of the Handforth ticket office as attractive and interesting as possible."
