Category: Lancashire

  • Les gares invisibles

    Les gares invisibles

    Quand une gare est « invisible » aux yeux du public — en raison de son emplacement caché, d’un mauvais signalement ou d’une promotion insuffisante — des choses indésirables surviennent.

    Le nombre de personnes utilisatrices stagne, les usagers du rail peuvent se sentir isolés et en situation d’insécurité, et le potentiel de l’arrêt n’est pas utilisé efficacement. Pour répondre à ce dilemme, Citizens’ Rail s’est mis en action avec des acteurs locaux concernant des solutions pour trois gares, en France, au Royaume-Uni et en Allemagne.

  • Lancashire school children prepare to visit Aachen

    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.

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    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.

    The children at their after school German lessons

    Picking up goodies at Burnley FC

  • Latest news from Lancashire’s Community Railways

    Latest news from Lancashire’s Community Railways

    Citizens’ Rail’s partners in Lancashire have published the latest edition of Reading between the lines – their informative newsletter packed with great community rail articles and ideas to inspire you.

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    The Summer 2014 edition includes a great piece on Citizens’ Rail, including more details and photos about the fantastic presentation in Burnley last month by Padiham Green CE Primary School for our European partners.

    [icon size=”14px” color=”#D42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-chevron-sign-right” spacing=”0px” /] Read the newsletter (4MB PDF)



  • Burnley school children welcome European partners in style

    Burnley school children welcome European partners in style

    Children from Padiham Green Primary School gave Citizens’ Rail partners a fantastic welcome to Lancashire for the project’s latest partner meeting.

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    At Burnley Manchester Road‘s new station building (to be opened later this year), the pupils presented an educational play about the local railway (complete with historical hats and moustaches!), followed by presentations about each of Citizens’ Rail’s partner regions. The children also created a wide range of railway-related artwork, adorning the station’s 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 children 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.”

    Erwan Terrillon from Pays de la Loire said: “I was extremely impressed by the quality of work that the children produced, and the way they explained the history of their railway line and the geography of the different Citizens’ Rail partners. I also very much enjoyed their words in French!”

    Our warm thanks go to the staff and pupils of Padiham Green Primary School who made it such a terrific occasion and to Community Rail Lancashire for facilitating the project – made possible thanks to their years of engagement and relationship-building with local schools.

    Enjoy some photos from the day below…


    The children present what they have learned about Aachen:



    The children had great costumes to bring to life the story of their local railway:



    Poster about Nantes – see a larger version:



    Poster about Heerlen – see a larger version:



    Poster about Burnley – see a larger version:



    A chance to meet Uwe from Stadt Aachen:



    Saying “bonjour” to Erwan from Pays de la Loire:



    Trying to tempt Andreas from Aachener Verkehrsverbund with some local delicacies:



    Carrying on the discussion in the station’s community room:



    Eye-catching artwork by the pupils:



    Dominic from Torbay Council and Erwan from Pays de la Loire wave off their new friends:



    All in all a great day – well done Class 4!



  • Travel survey underway across four countries

    Travel survey underway across four countries

    Local residents in each of Citizens’ Rail’s partner areas are being surveyed about their day-to-day travel to help inform future transport planning.

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    Thousands of flyers are being distributed in each partner language encouraging people to take the short survey, which can also be accessed at these links:

    Image Map

    UK (Devon) | UK (Lancashire) | Nederlands | Deutsch | Français

    The survey investigates the forms of transport that people use in their most frequent journeys, their awareness of rail services, factors that would encourage them to take the train more often, and their level of interest in getting involved in future improvements to stations and services.

    The exercise forms part of an academic evaluation of the Citizens’ Rail project, led by RWTH Aachen University and UCLAN.







  • New station building at Burnley Manchester Road nears completion

    New station building at Burnley Manchester Road nears completion

    The new, locally-owned Community Station building at Burnley Manchester Road is nearing completion. See below for the latest photos.

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    The station building will provide a booking and information office, a ‘coffee cart’ as well as providing a community room (see final photo below to see the room taking shape) which will act as a base for the East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership. The station has been designed to provide an attractive and iconic gateway to the town.

    It replaces the former station building, used for many years as a dairy after the station closed in the 1960s, which was purchased by Burnley Borough Council in 2011. With additional funding from Citizens’ Rail and Lancashire County Council this has been replaced by the new building, which will soon be open to passengers.

    [icon size=”14px” color=”#d42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-circle-arrow-right” spacing=”0px” /] Read more about Citizens’ Rail in Lancashire and our work on Community Stations and line improvements.

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  • Eco shelter at Accrington station

    Eco shelter at Accrington station

    Citizens’ Rail’s partners in Lancashire are also members of the Interreg IVB susstation project – supporting sustainable stations.

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    Here is a photo of an eco shelter developed at Accrington Eco Station as part of the project. The shelter will be the first in Lancashire to be constructed using sustainably sourced timber and lit using solar photovoltaic panels. This innovative project will enable the East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership (ELCRP) to evaluate how robust the shelter is and if the design can be used at other locations – with up to seven other sites as possibilities.

    It will also allow ELCRP to test passenger reaction to the new shelter and see how well it stands up to normal day to day usage. As well as being part funded through SusStations the project has also secured funding from Northern Rail and the Designated Line Community Rail Development Fund.

    [icon size=”14px” color=”#d42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-circle-arrow-right” spacing=”0px” /] Find out more about Accrington Eco Station and see further photos.

  • Burnley Manchester Road: latest photos

    Burnley Manchester Road: latest photos

    The new Community Station building at Burnley Manchester Road is rapidly taking shape, set to be completed in spring 2014 as part of Citizens’ Rail.

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    The station will provide a booking and information office, a ‘coffee cart’ as well as providing a base for the Community Ambassadors and the East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership. The station has been designed to provide an attractive and iconic gateway to the town.

    [icon size=”14px” color=”#d42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-circle-arrow-right” spacing=”0px” /] Read more about Citizens’ Rail in Lancashire and our work on Community Stations and line improvements.


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  • Community ambassadors win EU Rail Congress award

    Community ambassadors win EU Rail Congress award

    Northern Rail’s Community Ambassadors, part of Citizens’ Rail’s Lancashire project, have triumphed over nine other European entries to win recognition for their Customer Service Excellence at this year’s European Rail Congress Awards.

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    The scheme has flourished in the North West, introducing thousands of people in ‘hard to reach’ communities to the opportunities of travelling by rail.

    Alex Hynes, Managing Director at Northern Rail comments: “Our ambassadors have dedicated time and energy to offer a new lease of life to these communities and gradually overcome some of the obstacles of train travel. The numbers speak for themselves when we see a 14% rise in rail usage in these areas and it’s an incredibly proud moment to see them gain outstanding recognition for their commitment and value to Northern.”

    Richard Watts, Rail Development Team Manager at Lancashire County Council comments: “This is an excellent achievement for the Community Ambassadors. The Ambassadors are an important part of the European funded Citizens’ Rail Interreg IVB project and are showing how to it is possible to engage with hard to reach groups in East Lancashire and Greater Manchester and encourage them to try the train. By breaking down barriers it is possible to transform the lives of many people by helping them take up better paid employment or attend colleges to gain higher qualifications.”

    The awards were presented by Rory Bremner at the Westminster Park Plaza in London on Wednesday 13 November 2013.

    Caption: Julia Clayton and Simon Abbott from Northern Rail collect the Customer Service Excellence award at the European Rail Congress Awards.


  • Burnley: Work begins on community station building

    Burnley: Work begins on community station building

    Construction has begun on the state-of-the-art redevelopment of Burnley Manchester Road station, part funded by Citizens’ Rail.

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    The new station building is scheduled to be completed in May 2014, and will provide improved facilities for passengers and a hub for the area’s Community Ambassadors, employed by Northern Rail with support from Citizens’ Rail, who engage hard-to-reach groups with their local rail services.

    The revamp is planned to coincide with the start of a new direct service to Manchester later in 2014, anticipated to significantly increase use of the station.

    Burnley Council Leader, Councillor Julie Cooper, said:

    “For some passengers, the train station can be the first impression they get of a town, and with the transformations underway in Burnley, with new schools, college and universities, it is important that visitors arriving, or passing through see the ‘new’ modern, changing Burnley.

    This is a vitally important project for Burnley’s future economic growth.”

    [icon size=”14px” color=”#d42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-circle-arrow-right” spacing=”0px” /] Visit our Lancashire project page or read the Burnley Council press release (PDF) to find out more.

    (Photo: Andy Ford)