Last week, Brent Cross West welcomed Year 1 pupils from Claremont Primary School who wanted to explore and learn more about their local train station.

For some of the curious 26 children, it was their first time ever visiting a train station and being on a station platform. The pupils were shown around the huge new station by friendly Thameslink staff, including both entrances, the concourse and the platforms. They were particularly amazed with how one overbridge connects them to different areas (Brent Cross Town and Staples Corner); and also spotted the new bus stops that sit on each entrance of the station.

Thameslink station staff did a brilliant job showing the students how to use a ticket machine, read the display time screens and what different important signs they should keep an eye out for. Staff also gave the children a once in a lifetime opportunity to make station announcements, which students found to be amusing. Pupils were given a safety briefing by the station manager, Marc Asamoah, who also led the tour.

A few pupils shared with us their favourite part of the visit, such as Hamza A, who said: ‘I liked making the announcements, that was very cool’ and Yusef who added: ‘I liked the trip, the trains were very fast!’. Another student named Idrees shared: ‘l learnt so much about the train station during our visit, and I had lots of fun!’.

This visit forms an important part of the children’s learning of transport, and we were pleased to have the school approach us to arrange this visit alongside Thameslink station staff. Pupils got to pick a gift courtesy of Thameslink.

Did you know? Did you know that over half a million journeys have been made to and from Brent Cross West since it opened with nearly 2,000 journeys now being made each day.

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