A spot of sprucing up for Tenby’s train station platform was undertaken this week.

John Perrett a regular visiter to the seaside town who last year took over station adoption duties at the facility, paid a flying visit to the resort’s railway station on Monday morning to undertake some planting to help brighten up the platform flower boxes.

As John is from Caerphilly which had been in lockdown before Wales’ firebreak, this was the first time he had been able to travel to Tenby to do any work for quite some time.

Last year John set about taking on board the task of helping to spruce up the station’s appearance ahead of the holiday season and throughout the year as part of the station adoption scheme, volunteering to offer his help after finding that he had more and more complaining to do to rail authorities about the poor appearance of the facility - many holidaymakers’ first impression of the resort.

South West Wales also now has its very own Community Rail Partnership, designed to help communities get the most benefit from their existing railway lines.

The new Community Rail Partnership - South West Wales Connected, will engage with communities across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot to maximise the role the railway can play in fulfilling the goals of the Welsh Government’s Well-Being of Future Generations Act.

SWW Connected has been established by Transport for Wales and is hosted by 4theRegion, a membership alliance working to bring about positive change across the region.

The train station in Tenby had been earmarked for improvements by Transport for Wales before the Covid-19 crisis hit.

“With regards to the station, very little has happened during this pandemic,” explained John.

“Since March I wasn’t allowed to venture down until August. I drove down to have a site meeting about possible ideas, but after that Caerphilly was put into lockdown and then a national one. Monday was the first chance I’ve had to come down. I had plants waiting to install for about two months!

“One thing I have been pushing for are more planters to be installed on the north end of the platforms,” added John, who hopes to have a meeting with Transport for Wales’ liaison officer on site in the near future.