Murals, a tin-can artwork and a Scout-run pollinator garden have opened at Stafford station, which joins the Victoria Park bee trail. Spare pots wanted.

Stafford station has a set of pollinator murals, a 3D artwork made from recycled tin cans and a garden built out of old pallets and looked after by the local Scout group.

Avanti West Coast, which manages the station, announced the finished projects on 16 September. (Avanti West Coast, 16 September 2026) They were paid for through the operator’s Community Rail Project fund and delivered with North Staffordshire Community Rail Partnership.

What has gone in:

  • Murals on the platforms and along the walls of the customer overbridge, designed by Staffordshire artist Tom Edwards with groups of young people, who explored the pollinator theme in workshops before painting the final artworks.
  • A 3D installation on the overbridge, made from tin cans that were collected and modelled into flowers, blossom and pollinating insects. It surrounds the word “Stafford”. The work was led by Protean Art with community groups.
  • A shared pollinator garden, built from repurposed pallets turned into planters. Employees from Network Rail and the train builder Alstom volunteered to put it together.
  • Bug hotels, small boxes repurposed as homes for insects, already installed at the station by the Scouts.

The idea for the tin-can piece came from Fiona Main, a Customer Service Team Leader at the station. She wanted “a creative and alternative way to welcome customers into the town”.

The Scouts have been at this for three years

The garden has been adopted by the local Scout group. It is led by Justin Williams, who is a Customer Service Assistant based at Stafford station.

Their work is part of Platforms for Change, a joint initiative between Scout groups and the Community Rail Network. Williams said the group has spent three years on the station: litter picking, researching which plants would suit the wildlife garden and building the bug hotels.

“In addition to these activities, the opportunity for our Scouts to learn about railway safety has also been a big part of the project,” he said. “I am so proud of what they have achieved.”

The planters will be used for sessions run by outside groups including the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

Tom Edwards said the designs came out of workshops with local youth groups, “taking Stafford’s Bee Friendly Status as the starting point and exploring the bees, butterflies, moths and other insects that are so important to our local environment”.

Why bees, and why Stafford

Stafford was given Bee Friendly Town status in May 2024 by the Bee Friendly Trust, which lists “Stafford Bee Friendly” among its 2024 awards. (Bee Friendly Trust) The Trust has been making the awards since 2021. Leek and Shenstone Parish hold the same status elsewhere in Staffordshire, and Haughton St Giles Eco Council was added in 2025.

The station now forms part of the borough’s bee trail, which runs through Victoria Park, directly opposite. Stafford Borough Council set the trail up to mark the town’s status and to flag the decline of bees and other pollinating insects. It is a set of matching boards about common bumblebees and simple things people can do at home, and the council describes it as “an easy walk from the station through Victoria Park”. (Stafford Bee Trails)

On council-managed land elsewhere in the borough, the council says it is putting in wildflower meadows in parks and on selected verges, nectar-rich planting in beds and planters, log piles and long grass, and mowing less often so flowers can bloom. (Bee Friendly Stafford Borough)

How many people will actually see it

More than most station art projects.

Panel showing Stafford station figures: 2,456,512 entries and exits in the year to March 2025, 231st busiest of Great Britain's stations, 533,274 interchanges, and London Euston as the main destination with 512,610 journeys. Source: Office of Rail and Road estimates of station usage.
Stafford station passenger figures, year to March 2025. Source: Office of Rail and Road, estimates of station usage. Graphic by The Stafford Times.

Office of Rail and Road figures put 2,456,512 entries and exits at Stafford in the year to March 2025. That is about 6,700 a day. It makes Stafford the 231st busiest of the 2,586 stations in Great Britain. On top of that, 533,274 interchanges were made there by people changing trains without leaving the station, which is what the overbridge is for. (Estimates of station usage)

The single most common journey from Stafford is to or from London Euston, with 512,610 journeys in the year.

What it means for you

You can give the garden your spare pots. Avanti is asking for unwanted garden items so they can be reused in the rewilding space: large plant pots, stones and seeds. Speak to a member of the Avanti West Coast team at the station.

The trail is a short walk from the platforms. Victoria Park sits between the station and the town centre, so the bee boards are on the route most people already walk into Stafford. The council publishes a trail leaflet on its Stafford Bee Trails page.

To see the artwork, use the overbridge. The murals run along the platforms and the overbridge walls, and the tin-can piece is on the bridge itself, so you do not need a ticket for the platforms to walk under most of it if you are meeting someone.

If you are travelling from the station, our Stafford train times to London page has the timetable and the fares, and parking in Stafford covers the station car park.

Sources