Category: General @fr

  • Nos plus belles réussites

    Nos plus belles réussites

    Après trois années fantastiques, le projet Citizens’ Rail se termine à la fin du mois. Qu’avons-nous réalisé ? Découvrez-le avec notre poster interactif.

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    Merci encore à toutes celles et ceux qui ont participé à ce projet inspirant et passionnant. Citizens’ Rail continue à vivre par l’intermédiaire de son kit d’outils et de notre réseau en ligne, nous vous invitons à venir participer à ce travail commun visant à développer nos chemins de fer régionaux.

  • Masterclasses featured as ELTIS case study

    Masterclasses featured as ELTIS case study

    Citizens’ Rail’s pair of student masterclasses have been featured on the European urban mobility portal ELTIS.

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    The masterclass events brought together students from each of our partner regions for intensive two-day itineraries including site visits, presentations from expert speakers, and workshop sessions. The students, working in transnational groups, then generated new concepts and ideas for improvements to local stations and how to market local rail services. Earlier this year, the first of the students’ ideas was put into practice – a Wi-Fi welcome screen on mainline trains that promotes scenic trips on local branch lines – read more.

    The masterclasses have now been written up as a case study by Nick Davies from the University of Central Lancashire, and published on the European urban mobility portal, ELTIS.

    Read the case study

  • Citizens’ Rail récompensé à la remise des prix nationaux du rail pour la communauté

    Citizens’ Rail récompensé à la remise des prix nationaux du rail pour la communauté

    Au Royaume-Uni, Citizens’ Rail a été honoré trois fois aux Récompenses nationales du rail pour la communauté, à Torquay la semaine passée.

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    Devant un public de plus de 330 personnes, composé de personnel du secteur ferroviaire et de bénévoles, le projet Citizens’ Rail dans son ensemble a été reconnu dans la catégorie Travail d’équipe exceptionnel. Nos partenaires britanniques, français, allemands et hollandais ont remporté la troisième place grâce à leur implication dans un travail transnational et leur apport en projets collaboratifs imaginatifs, qui allaient au-delà de la portée originale du projet. Parmi ces projets, il y a eu un beau voyage des élèves d’une école du Lancashire pour visiter l’école de la cathédrale de la ville allemande d’Aix-la-Chapelle, des masterclass étudiants qui ont aidé à appliquer les idées des jeunes dans le monde réel du rail, et même la donation de tulipes hollandaises pour fleurir les jardins des gares dans le Devon.

    Deux projets participants à Citizens’ Rail ont également été récompensés lors de la cérémonie :

    L’amusante “piste des petites bêtes” (Minibeast Trail en anglais), sur la ligne de la Riviera entre Exeter et Torbay, réalisée grâce au Partenariat ferroviaire de Devon & Cornouailles, s’est vue octroyé le troisième prix dans la catégorie des petites initiatives artistiques pour la communauté. Accompagnés par l’artiste Melissa Muldoon, des enfants de l’école primaire Gatehouse à Dawlish et du club “Stay and Play” (Sure Start Dad) à Teignmouth ont fabriqué des papillons, libellules, abeilles, coccinelles et escargots à partir de plastique recyclé. Les petites bêtes ont ensuite été installées dans les bacs à fleurs des gares de Teignmouth, Dawlish, Newton Abbot, Torquay et Paignton.

    Le projet “Distance Between” par nos partenaires du Lancashire et d’Aix-la-Chapelle a également remporté le troisième prix dans la catégorie Impliquer les jeunes. Une classe d’enfants des écoles primaires d’une ancienne ville ouvrière du Lancashire a été invitée à participer à l’ouverture de la gare de Burnley Manchester Road dans le cadre du projet Citizens’ Rail. Ils l’ont fait d’excellente manière. En conséquence, la classe a participé à un échange culturel qui les as amené à Aix-la-Chapelle et Heerlen. Pour beaucoup d’enfants, c’était leur premier déplacement hors du Lancashire. Ils ont passé du temps à travailler avec une classe d’écoliers allemands, produisant des créations qui sont maintenant visibles dans les gares du Lancashire, à Aix-la-Chapelle et à Herleen.

    La cérémonie des Récompenses du rail pour la communauté (Community Rail Awards) est organisée chaque année par l’Association des partenariats du rail pour la communauté, pour saluer le travail accompli vers la promotion et l’amélioration des chemins de fer régionaux et ruraux de Grande-Bretagne. La remise des prix s’est déroulée après la conférence de clôture de Citizens’ Rail, qui l’a précédée le même jour – lire la suite.

  • Join our online network

    Join our online network

    Interested in involving people in local and regional railways? Join us!

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    As the Citizens’ Rail project draws to a close and we look to the future, we are excited to invite you to join our online network, the Community Rail Cafe. The Cafe offers a great way to continue our discussions, ask questions and share best practice. It is open not only to Citizens’ Rail partners but to everyone interested in “community rail”, including volunteers, Community Rail Partnerships, train operating companies, local and national government and other agencies.

    Set up by the Citizens’ Rail project, the Cafe is administrated by the UK’s Association of Community Rail Partnerships. At the time of writing we are approaching 70 members, with an inspiring range of topics already being discussed. Come and join! (It’s free and only takes a second).

    Visit the Community Rail Cafe





  • Explore our Toolkit

    Explore our Toolkit

    We are pleased to launch the Citizens’ Rail toolkit, and invite you to explore it.

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    The toolkit is a free set of online resources to help more people to discover the benefits of involving the community in local and regional rail, and to give them the tools and advice to make it happen.

    It is aimed at audiences including volunteers, train operating companies, local and national government, rail bodies and other agencies.

    The toolkit contains ideas, case studies, videos and inspiration from projects in the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and even as far afield as Japan.

    We are very grateful to all who have contributed to the Toolkit, both within the Citizens’ Rail project and beyond.

    Explore the toolkit



  • Final conference – a big success

    Final conference – a big success

    The Citizens’ Rail final conference held in Torquay last week was a big success. We would like to thank all our speakers and attendees for making it such an informative and engaging day.

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    The 70 delegates from the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands met the night before the conference for a special pre-conference networking event kindly funded by local rail operator Great Western Railway (GWR). The attendees took a trip from Torquay to Kingswear, taking advantage of a beautiful warm evening. This is normally a heritage railway route, but thanks to GWR and the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company, guests were instead able to travel on the pair of Class 153 units decked out in Citizens’ Rail and Visit South Devon liveries.

    Photo courtesy of Antony Christie

    Upon arrival, the delegates were welcomed by staff from sustainable local restaurant group Rockfish with a fish and chip dinner. The evening provided the perfect way for people to make new connections and get to know each other – especially important given that the group spanned four countries and a wide range of organisations – including rail operators, rail infrastructure bodies, Community Rail Partnerships and local, regional and national government.

    The conference itself – held at the Riviera International Centre – featured a range of great speakers from the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Each presentation spurred a lively question and answer session, and the afternoon featured group workshop sessions to make the day as interactive as possible. Explore the presentation slides below and see the full agenda at the foot of this post, or as a PDF.

    Keith Walton (Severnside Community Rail Partnership) asks Erwan Terrillon (Conseil régional des Pays de la Loire) about the Train Des Plages project

    Michel Huisman of the Maankwartier project in the Netherlands delivered a thought-provoking tour-de-force

    Continuing the discussions on the balcony

    Mark Hopwood, Managing Director of Great Western Railway, addresses the conference

    Slides from the main presentations:












    Workshops:
    We wanted to share the great points made in the interactive workshop sessions at the conference, so we’ve posted a forum thread for each workshop in our new online network the Community Rail Cafe. This allows participants to post their ideas or notes from the sessions. Even if you weren’t there on the day, we’d invite further ideas too – all are welcome. The aim is to create a lasting set of top tips for each topic that people can draw upon and build up over time.

    Read/contribute to each topic:



    The conference agenda:




    Following the conference, the UK’s national Community Rail Awards were held in the same venue that evening, with Citizens’ Rail projects recognised in three categories – read more.


  • Conference and rail awards ceremony to draw hundreds to Torquay

    Conference and rail awards ceremony to draw hundreds to Torquay

    One of the UK’s leading rail industry awards evenings will be held in Torquay this week, boosting the town’s hospitality sector with the arrival of more than 300 rail professionals and volunteers.

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    The annual Community Rail Awards will be held at the Riviera International Centre on Thursday 1st October. It will celebrate projects from across the country that involve local communities in their railways. It was last held in the South West in 2008, when it was hosted in Plymouth, home to the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership. The Partnership works to promote the branch lines of the two counties, and several of its projects have been shortlisted for this year’s awards. These include its family-oriented Minibeast Trail on the Riviera Line (Exeter-Paignton) and its revamped Great Scenic Railways website.

    The awards are organised by the Association of Community Rail Partnerships, and will be hosted by Mark Hopwood, Managing Director of train operator Great Western Railway. The evening ceremony will be preceded by a one-day European rail conference, also held in the Riviera International Centre, to celebrate the completion of the EU Citizens’ Rail project, led by the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership.

    Launched in 2012, the project has worked in the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands to develop local and regional railways by involving the community. On the Riviera Line, the project has part-funded improvements at stations along the line, additional trains between Newton Abbot and Paignton, marketing campaigns, and community engagement work with volunteers, local residents and schools. This has led to a 15% increase in passengers, despite the huge disruption caused by last year’s closure of the line at Dawlish.

    Richard Burningham, manager of the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, said:

    “The local part of our EU Citizens’ Rail project has been all about improving Torbay’s railway, with more trains and better stations, particularly Torre. We are delighted to be holding our final conference for the project in Torquay and for Torquay to be hosting the prestigious National Community Rail Awards, all of which will boost Torbay’s local economy.”

    Local partners in Citizens’ Rail – which is 50% funded by the EU’s Interreg IVB NWE programme – include Devon County Council, Torbay Council, First Great Western, Plymouth University and the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership.

    Photo courtesy of the English Riviera Tourism Company



  • Special report in Modern Railways magazine

    Special report in Modern Railways magazine

    This month’s edition of the leading UK magazine Modern Railways carries a special report about the Citizens’ Rail project.

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    The magazine’s European editor Keith Fender joined the Citizens’ Rail partners for this summer’s meeting in Pays de la Loire, and has worked with each of them to produce an informative look at the impact of the “community rail” approach in the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

    Read a PDF copy of the 16-page supplement (6MB):

  • Citizens’ Rail final conference

    Citizens’ Rail final conference

    We’re excited to welcome expert speakers from across North West Europe who will be presenting at the Citizens’ Rail final conference in Torquay on 1st October.

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    The conference – aimed at rail professionals and policy makers – has been extremely popular and places are now full (we will however be tweeting from the conference throughout the day, and the presentations and a video will be available to view on this website later in October).

    The wide-ranging agenda includes how to market rail services in a compelling way, how to innovate in the design and use of stations, and how to harness the creativity of students. The conference also contains afternoon break-out sessions where participants from the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands will share their own expertise.

    The conference takes place in the same venue as that evening’s national UK Community Rail Awards – with Citizens’ Rail projects shortlisted in three categories.

    Explore the full agenda below, or as a PDF.





  • New shelters on The Riviera Line

    New shelters on The Riviera Line

    New waiting shelters have recently been installed at Exeter St Thomas (above) and Torre stations as part of Citizens’ Rail’s work to enhance The Riviera Line in Devon.

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    The shelters mark a big improvement at both stations. They offer passengers better facilities and an improved sense of personal safety compared with having to wait in the old, dark and window-less ones that have now been demolished.

    Exeter St Thomas

    The Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, Torbay Council and First Great Western visit the Torre shelter as it nears completion.

    What’s more, both stations will continue to be improved over the course of 2015, including with more greenery, art projects and further improvements to facilities. If you would like to take part in the project at Exeter St Thomas, you may be interested in the recently formed Friends of Exeter St Thomas group formed as part of Citizens’ Rail.

    Local partners in Citizens’ Rail – which is 50% funded by the EU’s Interreg IVB programme – include Devon County Council, Torbay Council, First Great Western, Plymouth University and the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership.