The Railholiday Green Page

We try and run Railholiday as sustainably as possible. On this page we show what we and our guests are doing to bring this about. If you would like to know a little more about our journey to sustainability, please follow this link to our story.

As a company we have declared a Climate Emergency, and will endeavour to do all we can to minimise our impact on the environment.

The perfect place for a walk or repose

Communication

We believe information is a powerful tool against climate change. We are committed to share our ideologies by:

Writing a Nature and Environment blog.
Sending an annual newsletter to our guests and preserved railways with green tips to try at home.
Put a green tips takeaway sheet in our information books.
Having wildlife information boards on display in our woods and around our carriage sites.
Writing for our local parish newsletter.
Writing an Environment column for the Saltash Voice.
Giving talks on the environment and writing, performing and publishing environmental poetry.

Carbon Offsetting Options

We offer options to offset your holiday carbon use. For £25 we will plant a tree for you in one of our sites, or create and maintain three metres of wildlife hedge. Have a look at our carbon offsetting page to see what our guests have funded.

Come by train, bus, bike, sailing boat or on foot (all of these are possible, both St Germans and Hayle in Cornwall are well connected) and we will knock £50 off your holiday!

Energy

We have been on green energy tarrifs from when they first became available, and constantly review who is offering the greenest energy. However all energy comes at a cost, so we also strive to keep energy usage to a minimum. We hope when you stay you will help us to be green by turning down the heaters and turning the lights off when you go out. In return we will continue to prioritise and monitor our energy usage. Here are a few things we do;

The electricity for all carriages is run on national renewable energy schemes and sourced from Good Energy and Octopus Energy who offer all their electricity from renewable sources.
Low energy bulbs are used in all carriages.
All heaters are fitted with thermostat regulators.
All coaches are insulated and this is a priority when converting our new coaches.
In the amenities area, lights and sockets are on a sensor.
All coaches in St Germans are heated with wood.
Any new appliances we purchase are chosen for their A or A+ energy efficiency rating and made in the UK where possible.
Any new items come at an environmental cost, so we work on the policy that goods should be kept in good order and kept going for as long as is practical.
We try to buy the best quality our budget will allow, so we have longevity from products.

Heating with wood

With ten acres of woodland it makes sense to heat our carriages with wood to help reduce energy use in winter. We’ve invested a lot into wood fuel in the last couple of years, buying a state of the art wood burning biomass system to heat all the carriages on the new site. At the moment Mevy and Millpool have very effective central heating powered by the biomass boiler. We have also installed a wood burner in the Travelling Post Office as well as the Old Luggage Van. There is an added bonus for us - year round warmth means happy guests! (And there is something rather wonderful about snuggling up to a fire after a bracing walk around the countryside...). All our wood fuel is seasoned under cover until its moisture content is below 20% to ensure that it burns cleanly and creates very little smoke.

Food and Drink

With Lizzy’s dad having a small holding growing cobnuts, walnuts and Cornish varieties of apples for apple juice, we know all about what goes into making quality local food, and couldn’t imagine offering our guests anything other than the best. Therefore all the food and drink in our welcome packs is sourced locally. Typically we may provide;

Gluten free biscuits from Foxcombe Bakehouse, an eco friendly Devon bakery that uses plastic free packaging.
Cornish Orchards Heritage Cider, that uses apples supplied by Lizzy’s Dad.
Cornish Apple Juice from Lizzy’s Dad’s orchard, picked in house and pressed on the press originally owned by Lizzy’s parents, and now owned by our friend Pete (Pete’s Apple Pressing.
Cornish milk from Trewithen Dairy and served in reusable glass bottles.
A jute shopping bag, perfect for going to the local shops, produced by the Cornish company Go Jute
For food and drink we recommend the many local shops in Hayle, and in St Germans we suggest shopping in St Germans Community Shop or for advance food orders we recommend the local online shop Food For My Holiday.

Natural Gardens and Ecological Growth

Lizzy admit's to becoming a bit of a garden fanatic, ready to bore anyone with information on positive pollinator planting and organic gardening methods. The farming background is coming in handy! However we have discovered that a green approach to gardening really works and we are proud of our beautiful gardens; we have won Caradon in Bloom’s award for the most wildlife friendly garden for several years. You can see more about our approach to gardens on our Gardens page or read our Wildlife Blog.

All our outside taps in St Germans are fed with grey water from a well. In Hayle we have a 200 ltr water butt.
We garden in a sustainable manner, feeding our plants with a food made from liquid from our composting system. We also use our home produced compost to enrich the soil.
Composting bins are provided in each of the carriages, and guests are encouraged to use them.
We never use slug pellets, instead planting slug resistant plants.
In St Germans we grow our own flowers to put in the vases in the lets, and guests are welcome to use herbs from our prolific herb bed.
Most of our plants are from cuttings and divisions taken from friends’ gardens. When we do buy plants they come from local suppliers. We can highly recommend the Farm Shop on Penpol Terrace in Hayle which is excellent for bedding plants and local flowers.
We have embarked on a sustained campaign of hedge and tree planting, to ensure birds and other wildlife have food long after we are gone.
In St Germans guests have unlimited access to our ten acres of ancient woodland, situated a short walk away from the carriages, and are offered the opportunity to visit the apple orchard owned by Lizzy’s Dad.
In St Germans we are regularly visited by a moth expert, on account of the diverse range of moths. He has produced a catalogue of moths spotted, which is available in the carriages.
In the grounds of Hayle we cultivate a wild area, which is the perfect habitat for all sorts of flora and fauna, strimming only after the wild flowers have seeded.
With our tree planting scheme we have funded and planted a community orchard for St Germans, and funded nut and fruit trees for a re-wilding scheme in Dartmoor.
Both sites have ponds, installed for wildlife benefit. A pond is the greatest gift to wildlife.
Lizzy’s 2021 lockdown project was to organise a poetry competition for Beaver Trust on Nature and the Ecological Crisis, raising awareness of the importance of these keystone animals, who build ecology and prevent downstream flooding.

In the Office

Good practice starts at home, and in the Railholiday office this is no exception, so we:

Use recycled paper only.
Use the Cornish company ARRC Print for our printing our flyers, newsletters and Christmas cards, using vegetable based inks and recycled paper.
Keep scrap sheets for writing and printing internal memos.
Heat the office using a wood burning stove, and in winter all hot water and the kettle is also heated by the stove.
Power the office and the Old Luggage Van with a 3.6kW solar panel installation.

Public Transport and Travel

Here at Railholiday we strongly believe in the joys of public transport, and for this reason have chosen sites for our carriages beside working railway stations. Lizzy is chair of the St Germans and Area Public Transport Users Group and regularly attends transport planning forums. In order to encourage our guests to escape the queues and enjoy the countryside by catching the train, bus, walking or cycling we:

Have written a book of day trips by train, which is provided in each carriage.
Supply up to date timetables.
Send information on day trips by train and timetable information to guests with their second booking confirmation.
Provide a comprehensive Transport web page, with useful links to public transport information.
Offer guests a £50 cash back incentive if they leave their car at home.
Include information on local walks.
Have two electric bikes for staff to use under the Wheels2Work scheme.
Catch the train to Hayle to do our gardening and maintenance work, only needing to drive down a couple of times a year. (It's amazing what you can transport on a train off-season!)
Actively promote attractions that are accessible by train, foot and bike.
With the Public Transport Users Group Lizzy organises regular surveys, to provide information to First Great Western and keep St Germans station on the map.

Recycling and Waste

We recycle on a grand scale, taking derelict carriages and giving them a new lease of life, using wood from our own woodland wherever possible, local labour and craftspeople. We are rather proud of the end result. Here is a little information on how our guests help too.

At Railholiday we practice a system of Reduce, Reuse, Return and Recycle. We are very proud that in 2021 we managed to bottle all 360 bottles of our home-grown apple juice in reused bottles and tops, and still have plenty left over for our next pressing.
All carriages are provided with composting bins - we use our own compost on our gardens.
There are excellent facilities for recycling in all carriages. There is an inside bin in all carriages for glass, plastic, paper, card, cans and tins, and clear instructions on what to do with the recycling. We use Devon Contract Waste, who have a strong commitment to the environment.
All toilets are fitted with water saving devices, and the toilets at St Germans are fed with grey water from a well.
The bathroom taps in the carriage at Hayle are the original push and pour type, so cannot be inadvertently left on
Showers are fitted in all carriages.
We use green cleaning products wherever possible.

Social and Charity Work

Having been in the village for thirty years, and Lizzy for considerably longer, we are quite use to stepping in to play music for events, building display boards, balancing books, making rafts, trees and giants, and all the other fun things that make village life. We also actively play a part in the wider railway community. Here are a few of the ways in which we are involved;

Lizzy is the chair of the St Germans Rail Users’ Group, committed to raising awareness of the local rail service and carrying out surveys to assess rail usage and attending the South West Public Transport Users Forums.
Dave has been the treasurer for the St Germans' Village Community Shop Project, helping to set up the shop, and is now a voluntary member of staff.
Dave is the treasurer for the May Tree Fair - an annual village weekend of activities, with processions, bands, and much more, that we were founders of about ten years ago. In 2022 we sponsored the toilets for the village activities on the recreation ground, and intend to do so again in the future.
We also are regularly involved in fundraising for a variety of local and National charities, including St Germans School , St Germans and Downderry Cubs, The Railway Children and the RNLI.
We have donated holidays to The Railway Children, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, The Campaign for Better Transport, ACTSA, Avon Valley Railway, Bodmin and Wenford Railway, Children’s Hospice South West and the Nene Valley Railway. We estimate our donations over the last few years have raised over £10000 in total for these charities.
We play in a band Wurlitza giving old silent films a new lease of life with a new live music soundtrack. Lizzy also plays in various other collaborations often performing for charities, including for the school, the May Tree Fair, the local youth theatre group, the WI and more.
Lizzy is a member of St Germans Parish Council, and represents the council on environment work groups.
Prior to Covid we held community open days for the village, and for members of Coast, the excellent Cornwall sustainable tourism project. At each day we raise money for charity; the local Rail User Group, St Germans Village youth groups, the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the Railway Children have all been supported. The video of one of our open days is above. It is our intention to reinstate these in early Spring 2023, pandemics permitting.
In the past we have offered work experience for students with an interest in tourism, and Lizzy has done talks on sustainable tourism to Camborne College students, Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Tamar Valley Tourism Association. One of our proudest moments has been seeing our apprentice Ben go on to work at Lappa Valley, and become a director at Plym Valley Railway.
Lizzy is an ambassador for the Coast Project’s Heritage and Environmental Growth schemes, spreading the word about local heritage and positive pollinator planting.
As mentioned earlier, we have planted a community orchard of apple, pear and quince trees.
We are members of the carriage restoration group RailC, spreading and receiving advice about all things railway.

Sustainability

The premise for the Railholiday idea is one of sustainability - converting redundant coaches and giving them a new lease of life, and in many cases saving them from being destroyed. We are careful to keep as much original material as possible, and wherever possible use salvaged material in the conversion work. In addition, we also:

Are a holder of the South East Cornwall Tourism Association's Green Acorn Award for Sustainable Tourism.
Are a member of Coast.
Provide guests with a leaflet encouraging them to be green.
Attend sustainability seminars and constantly re-appraise how we can improve our green record
Lizzy is an ambassador for Coast Project, and will happy to help you with any sustainable queries you have - call me on 07776 261192.

Our Awards

We began applying for awards several years ago, and have found the application process enormously helpful in greening our business and would highly recommend anyone wishing to become more sustainable to apply. The feedback has been so useful to us. Visit our Awards Page for more information.

Looking forward

We were quite pleased to find that our list of things to do in the future of two years ago has been pretty much completed. However there are always ways in which we can improve; the more we do, the more this seems to be. It is our intention to continue greening our business. Our targets for the medium and long term are now;

To continue to work towards BCorp principles, using the assessment tool to find areas we can improve.
To spend time working out the maths of our carbon footprint, including guest miles to us, to ensure we are true in reaching our carbon neutral goal.
To work on improving our walking, cycling and Day trips by Train pages.
To replace all old appliances with more energy efficient ones, once they are no longer usable.
To fund more community orchards and to continue planting hundreds of trees each year.
To continue to find ways of sharing our knowledge with others. We are currently talking to our local primary school about them using the woods as an educational space.
To expand the varieties of native broad leafed trees in our woodland.
To put up more bird and bat boxes, and keep up the system of laying log piles each year.
To expand our nature trail to include information about fauna and fungi.

Railholiday is commited to being a sustainable tourism business. As part of this we offer a £50 cashback for guests arriving by train or who live within our local TR/PL/TQ/EX postcode areas. Our carriages have the added benefit of free broadband internet access.

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Contact Railholiday by email at office@railholiday.co.uk or by phone on (+44) 01503 230783. ©