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Station celebrates its first birthday

Summary:

Special event at St Mark’s Academy to celebrate the 1st birthday of Mitcham Eastfields Station.

By Kerry-Ann Virgo

MITCHAM Eastfields Station celebrated its 1st birthday last week with a special event at St Mark’s Academy.

In true party style there were speeches, a cake and even a performance by St Mark’s Samba Band.  

Merton’s Mayor, Councillor Nick Draper, Councillor Diane Neil Mills, cabinet member for finance and regeneration, and resident Jim Wyatt cut a specially baked cake to mark the occasion.

The station cost £6m and was the first to be built to a modular design developed by Network Rail.

Since opening it has become an important transport link for Mitcham residents and for the Borough as a whole.

New station usage statistics show it is benefiting thousands of people every month.

Chief rail operator, Southern Rail, reports more than 78,000 journeys made to and from the station since it was opened in July last year.

Fellow rail operator First Capital Connect has also reported around 55,000 journeys made on its trains.

In financial terms Southern has taken £500,000 in ticket purchases across the counter alone.

Councillor Mills said: “It is wonderful that we are now seeing thousands of people benefiting from Mitcham Eastfields Station both for leisure and business purposes.

“And we are of course delighted that the Mayor of London will see the new station for himself when he uses it to travel to Merton for a visit next week.”

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