Each year, EMR and Network Rail have a Community Action Day, when members of their staff are given the opportunity to take a break from the day job and do some community work instead.  On 6th May 2026, this meant coming to Market Harborough station to help Market Harborough in Bloom Volunteers in a working party at the station. 
Market Harborough in Bloom are the officially designated ‘Station Adopters’ and do a sterling job maintaining the planting boxes at various locations around the station.  This helps greatly in softening the rather functional platforms and making the station a colourful and welcoming gateway to the town. 
The tasks this year included replenishing some of the planting boxes alongside the emergency exit path behind Platform 2 and weeding the gravel areas and by various walls.  Harborough Rail Users were also represented.  We are grateful to everyone involved in this work to enhance the appearance of the station. 

​Market Harborough in Bloom Volunteers are the Station Adopters for Market Harborough station. They maintain the award-winning amenity planting across the town centre, including the station. Harborough Rail Users maintain close links with them, with Chair Steve Jones also being one of the Station Adopters. 
Judging for the East Midlands in Bloom regional competition took place on Monday 30th June.  Timing for this was hardly ideal, as the station is partly a building site for the platform reconstruction, see item below at 28th June.  However, the station is an important part of Market Harborough in Bloom and the judges visited, along with EMR’s Community Engagement manager, Kaye Robinson, on 30th June.  Despite the environs of the station looking in places like an industrial wasteland, the judges seemed impressed with the volunteers’ efforts.  We await their verdict!

Harborough Rail Users takes part in the Station Adopters for Market Harborough station.  This group is led by Market Harborough in Bloom Volunteers, who maintain award-winning amenity planting around the station, such as the planting boxes on the platforms plus the two restored parcels trolleys and the ‘goods wagons’ near the car park steps.  All of this is done under the auspices of EMR and their Community Engagement Managers provide much help and guidance. 
Our previous Engagement Manager, Alexa Stott, who had given a great deal of assistance and support, recently left EMR.  We wish her well in her new ventures.  Her replacement, Kaye Robinson, visited the station on 28th March and we had a walk-around and discussed numerous ideas.  One of these is the ‘Stationmaster’s Garden’ the rough bit of ground at the foot of the car park access road, next to the car wash.  We are hopeful that access can be granted to enable volunteers to create a small open space or garden at this gateway location for the town.   This follows disappointment at the withdrawal of funding previously earmarked for an improvement scheme for the station forecourt and adjacent grassy bank under the Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund via Harborough District Council.

The hard work done this year by Market Harborough in Bloom Volunteers at the station has paid off with a Judge’s Special Award.  This recognised the ‘difficult conditions’ for such activities at a busy railway station.  As well as maintaining the amenity planting around the town centre, Market Harborough in Bloom are the ‘adopters’ of the station under EMR’s Station Adoption scheme.  They have installed and look after various planting schemes around the station, aimed at softening the rather utilitarian nature of the new platforms and enhancing the station forecourt. 
​We in Harborough Rail Users maintain a close working relationship with Market Harborough in Bloom and warmly congratulate them for the recognition they have achieved.

On Monday 10th July, a working party took place at the station, clearing weeds from the gravel area behind Platform 2 and generally tidying up.  As well as the local station adopters from Market Harborough in Bloom, several colleagues from EMR and the Department for Transport came along to help.  They were on a community support day, and put in a lot of effort to help.
Tuesday 11th July saw the judges from East Midlands in Bloom visit the town, as part of the regional competition.  They had a good look around the station planting.  We now await their verdict!