Homes for birds & bats

Dozens of bird and bat boxes installed at nine TransPennine Express stations to provide new habitats for wildlife

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Published: March 24, 2025
This Article was written by: Katie Hill - My Green Pod
animals, birds, conservation, nature, trains, wildlife

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A total of 50 bird and bat boxes have been installed at nine TransPennine Express (TPE) stations to provide additional habitats for native wildlife.

The boxes have been installed on buildings, walls and trees at Yarm, Northallerton, Thirsk, Hull, Cleethorpes, Grimsby Town, Barnetby, Scunthorpe and Stalybridge stations.

They are part of TPE’s plans to grow biodiversity at its stations.

Sustainable tourism

Different types of box have been used to encourage various species, including a variety of bat species as well as birds such as robins, blackbirds, wrens, wagtails, swallows and swifts.

Last year, the train operator carried out several improvements across its stations to benefit wildlife, including pollinator-friendly station planter upgrades, bug hotels and a significant landscape planting scheme at Thirsk.

TPE’s broader goal is to lead and enable sustainable tourism and transport across the North of England and into Scotland.

‘We are committed to building a more sustainable railway, and this is just one of the many projects at our stations across the TPE network that focus on biodiversity.

‘With a lack of natural habitat space across many of our stations, bird and bat boxes are a simple way to provide additional places for them and we look forward to monitoring their use over the coming months.

‘We’re planning to install more bat and bird boxes in the future, along with several other exciting biodiversity improvements as part of our plan to create spaces that are good for nature across our network.’

STEVE GILDER
Environment delivery lead, at TransPennine Express