Stourbridge Junction: George's station loses prestigious final by a whisker
George the cat has lost by a whisker in his efforts to help his railway station take a top prize.
George, the resident moggie at Stourbridge Junction, had been the face of a campaign to see his station take top prize in the World Cup of Stations contest.
But after taking an early lead in Friday's online vote, Stourbridge Junction was pipped to the post by rival Glasgow Queen Street, by less than a third of a per cent.
The Scottish station topped the Twitter poll, taking 31.3 per cent of the vote, ahead of 30 per cent for Stourbridge Junction, which can lay claim to being the top station in England.
London's King's Cross station took third place on 21.9 per cent, while Huddersfield came fourth on 15.8 per cent.
George, who has nearly 10,000 followers on social media, has become something of a local celebrity after making his home at the station in December 2017.
And it was his work promoting public safety through his online presence which helped Stourbridge Junction make the shortlist for the Rail Delivery Group's annual competition.
Staff at Stourbridge Junction were praised for their work installing new signs and educating passengers to ensure they could travel safely and comfortably amid the pandemic.
But special recognition went to the role of George, who has nearly 10,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter, for his role in helping to spread the latest railway safety messages using through social media.
Providing some much-needed light-hearted relief, George has been praised by passengers for making them smile every day in these troubling times.
Following the announcement of the award, George took to Twitter to congratulate Glasgow on its victory.
"Please don’t be sad, let’s look at this positively," he said.
"Scotland is far bigger than Stourbridge - it’s Station footfall is 10 times greater than ours- I have won a lot of hearts made a lot of new friends what more could a cat ask for? Thank you so much everybody."
