Category: CR Nachrichten

  • Storytelling as a way to engage the community

    Storytelling as a way to engage the community

    Our French partner, Région Pays de la Loire, has helped local residents to (re)discover their local station through the timeless appeal of storytelling.

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    20 people – young and old – from Penhoët (the area around Saint-Nazaire’s docks) joined a pair of actors from local theatre troupe la Caravane Compagnie for a trip entitled “The Imaginary Journey”. The experience began on foot, exploring iconic spots in the local neighbourhood, including the market hall shown below, and recounting tales of the shipyard workers, for whom Penhoët station was originally built.

    The next part of the journey was by train to Nantes. None of the children on the walk had ever taken a regional train before, and only two had ever been on a high speed train. Asked about their first impressions, the children’s answers were striking: “comfortable”, “quick”, “convenient” – all showing that the day had sparked a desire to explore the regional rail network more in future.

    Upon arrival in Nantes, SNCF’s Marco Martinelli gave a tour of the station, answering the many questions from the families about the workings of the station and the logistics of travelling by train.

    Children and parents were then invited to design their own “Imaginary Journey” in the comfort of a dedicated room provided by SNCF. After the real-life train journey earlier in the day, the imagination took hold – with some of the ideas generated including trains on the moon, and even trains that can cross oceans. The artwork produced will be put on public display this summer and throughout the improvement works scheduled at Penhoët station.

    To say thank you, the Région and SNCF presented the children with a “passport”, giving them free travel on the Pays de la Loire network for two months. Inspired by a similar scheme by their fellow Citizens’ Rail partners Community Rail Lancashire, the passport is more than a souvenir of the day. It acts as an educational tool and makes commercial sense in terms of encouraging whole families to travel by rail more frequently.

    On the return journey, the actors told stories on the train using children’s books about dramatic railways around the world, from the Flying Scotsman to the Orient Express.

    The project was organised in partnership with the events team of housing association la Maison de Quartier Méan-Penhoët. They emphasised that the key to making the event work was to have in depth discussions in advance, and to gradually build the content of the journey by working together.

    The project succeeded in its goal of linking the past and the future, by directly appealing to local residents and organisations, and by making full use of the regional network. The storytellers’ theatrical narrative meant that the event was immersed in the cultural identity of the Penhoët neighbourhood’s history and identity.

  • Presentation to UK Rail Minister

    Presentation to UK Rail Minister

    Citizens’ Rail was in the spotlight this week at a Community Rail Marketplace event at the UK’s Department for Transport.

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    Richard Burningham, manager of our lead partner the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, delivered a presentation about the Citizens’ Rail project to an audience including high level Department for Transport officials and national and local representatives from the community rail sector.

    The Rail Partnership also had a stall at the event, promoting Citizens’ Rail and other projects, which was visited by Rail Minister Claire Perry and Clare Moriarty, Department for Transport Rail Director General.

    The Marketplace brought together Community Rail Partnerships from across the country as part of the Department for Transport’s Learning at Work Week. The Marketplace was organised by Kul Bassi, Community Rail Team Leader at the Department for Transport and aimed to raise awareness of the Community Rail world among civil servants.

  • Burnley gets direct trains to Manchester

    Burnley gets direct trains to Manchester

    Complementing Burnley Manchester Road’s new station building, funded by Citizens’ Rail, the town now has a direct rail service to Manchester for the first time in four decades.

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    Following a multi-million pound investment and almost a decade of partnership work between Burnley Council, Network Rail, Lancashire County Council and Northern Rail, on Sunday 17th May 2015 the direct Blackburn to Manchester via Burnley service returned to the region.

    Northern, a Serco and Abellio joint venture operated the historic first train, over 40 years after the closure of the Todmorden Curve in 1972, following the completion and opening of the line by Network Rail. This morning there was a community celebration at Burnley Manchester Road and Accrington stations to herald a new chapter in rail travel and the start of a range of benefits for the two communities.

    Commuters were welcomed with tea, coffee, muffins and a ‘goodie bag’ at Burnley Manchester Road and Accrington stations, handed out by teams from Northern, Burnley Council, the East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership and Lancashire County Council.

    The scheme was part-funded from the government’s Regional Growth Fund. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said:

    “This government is committed to transforming rail services across the North of England as part of our ambitious plans to build a Northern Powerhouse. Todmorden Curve is an example of the significant investment being made in the region’s rail network, in order to provide more seats, more services and better journeys for passengers. It will make a real difference by opening up better access to job opportunities, helping to secure economic growth.”

    Alex Hynes, Managing Director of Northern Rail, comments:

    “We would be delighted to welcome our local community to our stations to help us and our partners celebrate this milestone in railway history. We’re committed to bringing better services, improved stations and a wealth of local opportunities to the region and this new service is a positive step in the right direction for all concerned.”

    County Councillor John Fillis, Lancashire County Council cabinet member for highways and transport, said:

    “It is a fantastic achievement by everyone involved to re-establish the direct service from Burnley to Manchester which will extend opportunities for local people and have a real impact on the economy. It shows what can be achieved when partner organisations are clear about their priorities and work closely together to deliver them. The working relationships established will be instrumental in the ongoing transformation of rail services in East Lancashire. I look forward to the service being a great success, paving the way for better trains and faster journey times in the future.”

    Councillor Mark Townsend, Leader of Burnley Council, said:

    “We’re delighted to have a direct service to Manchester from Burnley once again. It will bring clear benefits to our economy in terms of access to the job market and establishing Burnley as a commuter town. Our outstanding countryside is even easier to reach for visitors. It’s a real milestone in our continuing success story and one we wish to celebrate.”

    Terry Strickland, area director for Network Rail, said:

    “The reopened Todmorden Curve is a significant improvement to the railway in this part of the country and will allow services to run directly between Manchester Victoria and Burnley Manchester Road for the first time since the 1960s. We have worked closely with Burnley Council, Lancashire County Council and Northern Rail to make this happen and it is an excellent example of partnership working to help deliver a better railway for passengers.”

    Get train times and tickets on Northern Rail’s Burnley-Manchester mini-website.

  • Station improvements  – good news from Aachen

    Station improvements – good news from Aachen

    Citizens’ Rail’s station improvement projects have taken another step forward thanks to a pair of positive council verdicts about Eilendorf station.

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    This month the city’s mobility committee and Aachen-Eilendorf district council both agreed that the transformation of the station should move to the next stage of planning.

    The current station has very poor access for people wishing to get from one platform to the other, involving a long walk via the bridge to the west or tunnel to the east. Passengers have been known to illegally cross the tracks.

    The centre piece of the proposed design is a bridge with barrier-free access. This emerged as the best solution through close engagement with the local community as part of the Citizens’ Rail project. This included consultation events attended by approximately 50 people held in the local neighbourhood.

    Read more about the project on Aachen City Council’s Eilendorf page (in German).

  • All aboard the Citizens’ Rail train

    All aboard the Citizens’ Rail train

    The Citizens’ Rail project is now being promoted across the South West of England thanks to a new train livery unveiled last week.

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    Train operator First Great Western – heavily involved in our Riviera Line project – kindly offered to rebrand the Class 153 train to coincide with our latest partner meeting. On Thursday 5th March, our French, German, Dutch and UK partners travelled to Swindon for a meeting at First Great Western headquarters, and then saw their unmissable red train arrive at the station. The “photo bubbles” on the train show the different types of community engagement undertaken during the project, ranging from our family Minibeast Trail, to transnational student masterclasses, to work with volunteers.

    The unit (number 153325) will now travel the First Great Western network spreading the word about the project. It’s already been spotted at stations including Totnes and Dawlish (see final photo below), where it was described as “rather stunning” by one commentator, Colin J. Marsden, editor of the Dawlish Trains website.

    A second train livery, promoting travelling to South Devon by train, is also currently in production. The units were in need of rebranding as they were in London Midland rather than First Great Western colours. See more photos:

    © Colin J. Marsden, DawlishTrains.com. Click image to see large version (5MB).

    Video at Torre station by William Spencer. (15 seconds into the video, you can see Torre’s new shelter, constructed as part of the Citizens’ Rail project.)



  • Citizens’ Rail to present at European mobility conference

    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.

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    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.

  • New report shows the value of involving people in rail

    New report shows the value of involving people in rail

    A UK report published today shows that involving people in their railways leads to more passengers, improved stations and stronger communities.

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    The report – which highlights Citizens’ Rail and the contribution of the EU Interreg IVB programme – shows that local routes with Community Rail Partnerships (CRPs) are seeing a higher growth in passengers than other local routes, while volunteer station adopters are making a real difference by transforming local stations into a pleasing environment.

    The main findings are:

    • 2.8% additional growth on community railways compared to regional lines.
    • CRPs add value and ‘pay for themselves’.
    • 3,200 community rail volunteers give 250,000 hours of their time worth an additional £3.4m p.a. to the rail industry
    • Station adoption leads to improved station environments and stronger communities.

    One of the report’s “key lessons” is the value of working in partnership, with Citizens’ Rail and the EU Interreg IVB programme highlighted as a good example. The project’s work at Burnley Manchester Road is applauded in the report as a “remarkable pulling together of different agencies and partnership investment strategies which will help revitalise Burnley”. Richard Watts of Citizens’ Rail partner Lancashire County Council is quoted in the report:

    “Partnership working has been key to delivering the new station at Burnley Manchester Road. Working with both the East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership and the Citizens’ Rail Interreg IVB project has added value to the project and the transnational exchange of ideas has enhanced the design of the new station and increased its visibility to the citizens of Burnley.”

    The research was commissioned by the UK’s National Community Rail Development Steering Group. This partnership comprises central and local government, infrastructure owner Network Rail, the commercial sector Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) and the voluntary sector Association for Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP).

    Read the executive summary or the full report:

    Executive summary:

    Full report:

    As well as promoting local railways and encouraging more people to travel by train, CRPs add economic, social and environmental value to their lines, by bringing together local people and the rail industry to develop solutions. Their collective initiatives provide access to jobs, schools, shops, tourism attractions and other services, contributing to sustainable communities.

    CRPs were first developed in the 1990s and the National Community Rail Strategy was launched in 2004. This report shows that the Department for Transport, train companies, Network Rail, ACoRP, CRPs and station adopters contribute to a continuing renaissance in regional rail travel, with local routes and the stations along them thriving – in some cases surpassing previous record levels of patronage.

    The Citizens’ Rail project represents an expansion and next step for this success story – involving French, German and Dutch partners to learn from and build upon the UK’s track record of involving people in local and regional railways.

    Commenting on the report Baroness Kramer Minister of State for Transport said:

    “Community Rail Partnerships have a vital role to play in building a stronger economy and a fairer society, as demonstrated powerfully by this research. By encouraging more people to travel by train, they bring real economic, social and environmental benefits to their areas, and support the record investment we are making in the rail network. I hope this inspires more people to set up partnerships and develop their own community railways.”

  • The Riviera Line website wins another award

    The Riviera Line website wins another award

    After being recognised last month at the UK Community Rail Awards, a website developed as part of the Citizens’ Rail project has received further praise – this time winning at the UK Rail Exec Most Interesting Awards.

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    The Riviera Line website won in the Most Interesting Community Engagement Project category at the awards, held in Leicester on 29th November 2014. The award was presented by Neil Buxton, General Manager of the Association of Community Rail Partnerships to Mike Parker-Bray, Citizens’ Rail Communications Officer at the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership.

    The story of the website
    After winter’s infamous storms, the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership (DCRP) wanted to harness the local feel-good factor around the re-opening of the line through Dawlish.

    A marketing campaign was developed to win back lost passengers and to attract non-users to try the train between Exeter and Paignton. Its centrepiece was TheRivieraLine.com – a new type of community rail website, providing concise travel advice delivered in a visual, modern style.

    The website – launched in the first week of April 2014 to coincide with the line’s re-opening – was created as part of the EU Citizens’ Rail project, of which DCRP is the lead partner.


    Five innovative features:

    Resizing to suit all devices
    The site is believed to be community rail’s first “responsive” website. This means its content resizes to provide a comfortable reading experience on PCs, tablets and smartphones (see screenshots provided). This is not only better for the user, but it also minimises costs for the Community Rail Partnership – who might otherwise have to fund and manage an app or separate mobile version of the website. It also future-proofs the website: with the numbers of people viewing websites on mobile devices widely predicted to grow and grow. Since its launch, one in three visits to TheRivieraLine.com has come from smartphones or tablets.

    Tailored for non-users
    The website breaks down barriers to travel by explaining the essentials in an approachable, easy-to-digest way. This ranges from how to buy tickets when travelling from unstaffed stations, to whether you can take your dog on board, to whether there are toilets on the train. The site addresses these frequently asked questions in a concise, friendly way to help non-users to try the train. This is a departure from the stuffy tone and long-winded content of some public transport websites.

    Gathering insights to inform future marketing
    Every link on the website is tracked, so that over time a rich picture will develop of which types of discounted tickets are most popular and which destinations are clicked most frequently. In this way the website will become a valuable source of insights to inform future marketing: both online and offline.

    Professional, people-focused photography
    The site uses professional photography to put people at the heart of the story. This addresses what is arguably a common weakness of public transport websites.

    Bringing together little-known tools
    There are many handy rail travel tools available online, including season ticket calculators, personalised timetable creators, live departure information, car parking season ticket calculators and more. However, they are often little-known and are tucked away on a range of different websites. TheRivieraLine.com showcases them (including providing direct links to the tools) to raise their profile and help users.


    [button size=”large” color=”#ffffff” background=”#d42053″ radius=”0px” type=”flat” link=”http://therivieraline.com/” newwindow=”false” icon=”” ]Visit the website[/button]



  • Burnley Manchester Road – station building now open

    Burnley Manchester Road – station building now open

    Burnley Manchester Road’s fantastic new station building opened its doors to the public today (17th November 2014).

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    Built with the help of funding from Citizens’ Rail as part of the EU Interreg IVB programme, the new building will transform the town’s busiest station and aid Burnley’s economic regeneration. The first ticket sold (00033) was to a business man travelling to York. The opening coincides with the trip of a lifetime to Germany and the Netherlands being undertaken by Lancashire school children – also as part of Citizens’ Rail.

    The story of the station
    Burnley Manchester Road station closed in 1961, and since re-opening in 1986 has been unstaffed and without an operational station building. To make matters worse, its built-up surroundings impinged on the visibility of the station, which was largely hidden from the busy main road. As a result, Burnley Manchester Road was anonymous within the town. With the station “out of sight and out of mind”, it was all too easy for rail to become a forgotten transport option for many.

    In 2011, Burnley Borough Council purchased the former station building, used for many years as a dairy after the station closed in the 1960s. Funding from the Interreg IVB programme, Burnley Borough Council and Lancashire County Council has enabled this to be replaced by a new building. The decision to rebuild followed a sustainability assessment as part of another Interreg IVB project, SusStation (Sustainable Stations).

    One of the crucial elements of the new building’s design is its distinctive blue fin. This eye-catching feature has hugely improved the visibility of the station within the surrounding area. It has also given Burnley Manchester Road its own look and identity within the town. The fin was proposed by the French partner in Citizens’ Rail, Pays de la Loire, in an example of the transnational collaboration that lies at the heart of the Interreg IVB programme.

    When construction began last summer, Burnley Borough Council Leader Councillor Julie Cooper said:

    “For some passengers the railway station can be the first impression they get of a town. This is a vitally important project for Burnley’s future economic growth.”

    The building has already attracted strong interest within the rail sector. Visitors have included a special advisor to the UK government’s Department for Transport, who praised the station for its visual appearance and its modular design. The modular nature of the station means that it could become a template that could be expanded or contracted to suit the local circumstances of other stations. So perhaps in future we will see more blue fins cropping up across the UK and even beyond.

    The station’s profile and importance will grow even further in 2015, with the advent of the new direct service between Burnley and Manchester.


  • Problemlösungen für unsichtbare Bahnhöfe

    Problemlösungen für unsichtbare Bahnhöfe

    Wenn ein Bahnhof für die Öffentlichkeit “unsichtbar” ist – aufgrund seiner versteckten Lage, einer schlechten Beschilderung oder ungenügender Werbung – hat das negative Folgen. Die Zahl der Fahrgäste ist rückläufig, Bahnnutzer fühlen sich eventuell isoliert und nicht sicher und das Potential des Bahnhofs wird verschwendet.

    Um dieses knifflige Problem in den Griff zu bekommen, hat Citizens’ Rail mit den Gemeinden vor Ort an Lösungen für vier Bahnhöfe im Vereinigten Königreich, Frankreich und Deutschland zusammengearbeitet.