Category: Lancashire

Transnational masterclass in Preston

Students from Germany, the Netherlands and the UK took part in a two-day Citizens’ Rail masterclass in Preston this week to generate new ways to promote rail travel.

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Hosted by the University of Central Lancashire’s Institute of Transport and Tourism, the event included site visits to Burnley and Blackpool, expert speakers from Marketing Lancashire, Abellio, Lancashire County Council, Burnley Borough Council and Blackpool Borough Council, and workshop sessions where the students worked in transnational groups.

The students were from four institutions: UCLAN and Plymouth University in the UK, RWTH Aachen University in Germany and Zuyd Hogeschool in the Netherlands.

Presentations by the students:
The students generated marketing campaigns aimed at different groups including commuters, families and tourists. They presented their results to an audience of rail and marketing practitioners:

Photos from the masterclass:

Visiting Burnley Manchester Road’s new station building with Richard Watts, Lancashire County Council

Children from Padiham Green Primary School pose for the students next to their artwork in the station’s community room

Hard at work at Victoria Mill in Burnley

Exploring Blackpool’s tourist appeal as the sun sets

Abellio’s Jeremy Whitaker advises the students on rail marketing

What happens next?

Our partner organisations within the Citizens’ Rail project are keen to bring the students’ insight and marketing ideas to life. We will be discussing which of the concepts we can put into practice during the spring and summer, prior to the project’s final conference in Torquay, UK, on 1st October 2015.

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2015/03/24
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.

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.

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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.

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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
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.

2014/11/17
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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

2014/10/23
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)

2014/08/06