Category: Aachen

Citizens’ Rail to present at European mobility conference

Citizens’ Rail’s academic team will be presenting at the European Conference on Mobility Management (ECOMM 2015) in May.

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

In a positive example of transnational working, Nick Davies and Richard Weston (University of Central Lancashire, UK) and Dominik Elsmann and Marco Trienes (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) have prepared a paper on “Understanding Citizens’ Rail: how marketing and social outreach can encourage involvement by the public in their rail services and change attitudes towards rail”.

This has now been accepted as part of the “Understanding the user” presentation session at the conference, to be held in Utrecht in the Netherlands from 20th to 22nd May 2015.

Visit the conference website to find out more.

2015/02/18
School poster to celebrate international trip

Following on from their recent visit to Aachen and Heerlen, children from Padiham Green Primary School in Lancashire have produced a spectacular poster, proudly displayed in the main school corridor.

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

Each child is pictured wearing their Aachen “hoody” and they have written in speech bubbles about their favourite part of the trip. The children have also sent Christmas cards to their new friends from the Domsingschule, Aachen’s cathedral school at which the Padiham pupils spent a fantastic day of learning, singing, making friends and playing international football! The cards featured the children’s own drawings of the cathedral. The German children, much to the delight of the Padiham class, have today replied with their own greetings.

[button size=”large” color=”#ffffff” background=”#d42053″ radius=”0px” type=”flat” link=”https://citizensrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/medium-Display-board-by-pupils-after-trip.jpg” newwindow=”false” icon=”” ]See a larger version of the poster (1.3MB)[/button]

2014/12/18
School children enjoying their international trip

Our intrepid Lancashire school children are thoroughly enjoying their week in Germany and the Netherlands. From an official welcome at Aachen City Hall (pictured above), to singing lessons with their new Aachen school friends, to scaling viewpoints where they could see three countries at once, they are cramming a lot in to their four-night stay.

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

The trip is the children’s well-earned reward for delivering a fantastic presentation and warm welcome to Citizens’ Rail’s European partners during their meeting in Lancashire in July (read the full story so far).

The children have raised funds through various events at school to contribute towards the visit. Additional funding for the trip is being provided by Citizens’ Rail, the DCRDF Fund, UK German Connection and Abellio.

[button size=”large” color=”#ffffff” background=”#d42053″ radius=”0px” type=”flat” link=”http://aachen2014.blogspot.co.uk/” newwindow=”false” icon=”” ]See more photos and follow the children’s trip on their own fantastic blog[/button]

2014/11/20
Pen pals and plaster casts

The story of the Lancashire school children set to visit Germany and the Netherlands continues to unfold – with the latest twists including injured staff members and new friendships being formed.

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

With just three days to go before the children set off, co-organiser of the trip Brian Haworth of Lancashire County Council has injured his arm having tripped and fallen, but he is resolute that nothing will stop him joining the expedition. He said: “I decided that taking 29 eight and nine year-olds to Germany was not challenging enough, so I made it more challenging!”

Meanwhile, the pupils in Grade 3 at Domsingschule in Aachen have been writing to the UK peers, sending ‘All about me’ booklets to introduce themselves to their new friends. The Padiham Green pupils have written back and looking forward to practicing their German language skills when they meet up in person next week.

The Padiham Green pupils have also been visited by their local mayor, and have received a range of Lancashire produce to give to their new Aachen friends, provided by generous local businesses. Farmhouse Biscuits provided a selection of their traditional biscuits. Padiham Tesco donated water bottles for the trip and locally produced goods such as Eccles cakes and Chorley buns. And the highlight was a visit to Moorhouse’s to collect some Lancashire brewed ale!

The trip is the children’s well-earned reward for delivering a fantastic presentation and warm welcome to Citizens’ Rail’s European partners during their meeting in Lancashire in July (read the full story so far).

The children have been busy raising funds through various events at school to contribute towards the visit. Additional funding for the trip is being provided by Citizens’ Rail, the DCRDF Fund, UK German Connection and Abellio.

[button size=”large” color=”#ffffff” background=”#d42053″ radius=”0px” type=”flat” link=”http://aachen2014.blogspot.co.uk/” newwindow=”false” icon=”” ]Follow the children’s trip on their own fantastic blog[/button]

2014/11/14
Transnational school visit – the build-up continues

Excitement is mounting for next week’s epic school trip from Lancashire to Aachen and Heerlen. Children from Padiham Green CE Primary School have been making their final preparations, from creating luggage labels (above) to writing to the queen to let her know about their adventure!

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

The trip is the children’s well-earned reward for delivering a fantastic presentation and warm welcome to Citizens’ Rail’s European partners during their meeting in Lancashire in July (read the full story so far).

The school will set off at 6am on Monday morning for their five-day trip. The visit days, will see the children travel by coach, ferry and rail. Colleagues from the Citizens’ Rail project in both the Netherlands and Germany have arranged educational visits in their respective countries to ensure that the children have an interesting and fulfilling time. The highlight for the children is to spend time in a German school with children of their own age group. During this time the children will work together to produce artwork named “The Distance Between” which can be displayed at railway stations both in Germany, the Netherlands and England. It is hoped that more permanent links will be forged between the two schools after this ground-breaking visit.

The children have been busy raising funds through various events at school to contribute towards the visit. Additional funding for the trip is being provided by Citizens’ Rail, the DCRDF Fund, UK German Connection and Abellio.

[button size=”large” color=”#ffffff” background=”#d42053″ radius=”0px” type=”flat” link=”http://aachen2014.blogspot.co.uk/” newwindow=”false” icon=”” ]Follow the children’s trip on their fantastic blog[/button]

Newspapers produced by the children:

Letters to the BBC and the Queen:

2014/11/12
Solving the problem of the Invisible Station

When a station is “invisible” to the public – due to its tucked away location, poor signage or inadequate promotion – bad things happen. Passenger numbers are held back, rail users can feel isolated and unsafe, and the station’s potential is squandered. To crack this conundrum, Citizens’ Rail has been working with local communities on solutions at four stations in the UK, France and Germany.

2014/11/05
Lancashire school children prepare to visit Aachen

School pupils who welcomed Citizens’ Rail partners to Burnley during the summer are soon to make the return trip – embarking on an adventure to the German city of Aachen.

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

The story so far
In July, the Year 5 class from Padiham Green CE Primary School greeted Citizens’ Rail partners from France, Germany and the Netherlands at Burnley Manchester Road station. They performed a play about the history of the area’s railway (complete with historical top hats and moustaches – see photos), followed by presentations about what they had learned about each of the partner regions. The children also created a wide range of railway-related artwork, which adorned the station’s new community room.

The partners were hugely impressed and touched by the effort and imagination that the children had clearly invested in learning about the culture, economy, food and history of each local area. The pupils in turn were excited to meet representatives from each of the countries they had been studying – providing a chance to find out more, and to try out their language skills. Uwe Müller from Stadt Aachen said:

“The children’s work and enthusiasm was really outstanding! I was very impressed by what they had learned and presented about Aachen. I hope that one day we might be able to arrange for the children to visit our cities in person.”

The next chapter
Now Uwe’s invitation has become reality. Next month, the class of 30 pupils and 8 adults will be travelling to and staying in Aachen. They will spend one day in a German school, working alongside similar aged children, forging new links and friendships. Exploring Aachen will be high on the itinerary in order that the children can visit the many places of interest previously researched at school in Padiham. A visit to the Netherlands is also planned – travelling by train from Aachen to Heerlen. Teacher Janet Ennis said:

“This exceptional transnational project is about expanding the learning horizons of the Year 5 pupils of Padiham Green CE Primary School, many of whom will be travelling abroad for the first time. The children are very proud to represent their school and also appreciate the task of becoming ambassadors for their town, county and country!”

To prepare for the trip, the children have been taking after school German lessons (see photos below), and their adventure has captured the interest of the town.

The Lancashire Telegraph newspaper recently paid a visit to the school to find out more, and Burnley Football Club invited the children to the stadium to collect a large selection of goodies. The class are now fully equipped with pencil cases and stationery, key rings, door plaques, back packs and beanie hats for the upcoming trip, and even have enough to present to their European school friends too.

The children have been busy raising funds through various events at school to contribute towards the visit. Additional funding for the trip is being provided by Citizens’ Rail, the DCRDF Fund, UK German Connection and Abellio.

[icon size=”14px” color=”#D42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-chevron-sign-right” spacing=”0px” /] Follow the children’s preparations for their trip on their fantastic blog.

2014/10/23
German academic enjoys trip to research UK community rail

One of the German members of Citizens’ Rail’s academic team enjoyed an action-packed visit last week to research the UK’s community rail sector.

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

Fresh from his presentation to the International Geographers’ Union in Krakow, Dominik Elsmann from RWTH Aachen University (pictured left above, with Richard Burningham of the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership) visited the UK to interview a range of experienced figures from the country’s long-standing community rail sector.

The research will help to inform his PhD on “Regional railway governance”, with a specific focus on participatory approaches. In this context he will compare two case study regions in Germany and Great Britain.

Also as part of the trip, Dominik joined the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership at their local conference – giving the opportunity to hear from speakers from the rail industry, local authorities and the community rail sector. The conference was preceded by a social evening for early attendees. This included a “music train” on the Tamar Valley line (pictured), enjoyed by delegates and local passengers alike.

As the final part of the visit, a productive planning meeting with the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership was held. This focused on the relationship and links between Citizens’ Rail’s academic evaluation, and the project’s practitioner toolkit – a free resource being developed to help rail professionals and others to get local communities more involved in their local and regional railways.

2014/09/08
Presenting at an international geographers’ conference

Dominik Elsmann from RWTH Aachen University presented on the topic of “Citizens’ Rail – Using citizens‘ participation for rail revitalization” at the International Geographical Union conference in Krakow this month.

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]
The presentation formed part of the session on “Geography of Governance – Geography, governance and citizens’ participation“. It was a great opportunity to promote the Citizens’ Rail project to a dedicated audience and to exchange knowledge on this important topic. Geographers from all over the world joined the conference, which takes place annually.

View the slides from Dominik’s presentation:

2014/08/27
Citizens’ Rail at the International Geographical Union

Dominik Elsmann from RWTH Aachen University has been accepted to speak at the International Geographical Union’s 2014 conference on “Citizens’ Rail – Using citizens‘ participation for rail revitalization”.

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]
The conference takes place next month in Krakow, and the presentation will form part of the session on “Geography of Governance – Geography, governance and citizens’ participation“. It is a great opportunity to promote the Citizens’ Rail project to a dedicated audience and to exchange knowledge on this important topic. Geographers from all over the world will join the conference, which takes place annually.

2014/07/18