Citizens' Rail

Category: Parkstad Limburg

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.


  • Students’ innovative Wi-Fi idea becomes a reality

    Students’ innovative Wi-Fi idea becomes a reality

    A ground-breaking idea conceived at our recent Citizens’ Rail student masterclass has been implemented by the UK rail industry within just three months.

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    The two-day workshop, hosted in Preston (UK) by the University of Central Lancashire in March 2015, brought together students from German, Dutch and UK universities to develop fresh ideas for how to promote local and regional railways.

    Citizens’ Rail partners chose marketing as the focus for the masterclass because marketing campaigns are often simpler and quicker to implement than other rail projects. Students were therefore motivated by the knowledge that their proposals could soon be put into practice.

    The Wi-Fi idea
    The first idea to be realised came from the transnational group of students that was developing marketing campaigns targeted at tourists and leisure travellers.

    The students saw an opportunity to promote leisure trips on local and regional lines using the Wi-Fi connection screens on mainline trains.

    Implementing the concept
    The idea was swiftly pursued by Citizens’ Rail’s lead partner, the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership.

    Alongside its work within the European project, the Partnership was in the middle of planning a separate campaign to promote Cornwall’s scenic branch lines and destinations. The campaign harnessed the popularity of the BBC series Poldark. In spring 2015 the hit British television programme had prominently featured Cornwall’s beautiful coast, countryside and mining heritage. The Partnership therefore developed a theme of “Visit Poldark country by train”.

    As well as a flagship event at London Paddington, leaflets and other materials, the Partnership created a mini-website showing how to visit filming locations from the programme by train.

    Thanks to the masterclass, train operator First Great Western agreed to promote the campaign on the onboard Wi-Fi of their fleet of High Speed Trains. Now, when users connect to Wi-Fi aboard the train, they are greeted with the “Visit Poldark country by train” message.

    When they click “Continue”, they are taken to the First Great Western homepage, which prominently features a link to the Partnership’s campaign website. The Wi-Fi promotion will continue to run until the later in the summer, helping to promote First Great Western’s branch lines to users of other parts of its network.

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    The results
    The campaign has already led to a 40% increase in the Partnership’s web traffic compared to the same period the previous year – attracting 10,000 visitors in just five weeks. The Partnership has also put the project forward for a national Community Rail Award (winners to be announced in October 2015).

    The project shows the power of involving young people in their railway, and the difference that their fresh perspectives and innovative ideas can bring.


    Participating universities
    Citizens’ Rail would like to thank all the students and universities that took part. The event, which was the follow-up to our first masterclass in Aachen and Parkstad Limburg in 2013, was a great example of the transnational working that is at the heart of the EU Interreg IVB NWE programme, through which Citizens’ Rail is funded.

    University of Central Lancashire
    Plymouth University
    RWTH Aachen University
    Zuyd Hogeschool

    Read more about the masterclass and see the students’ PowerPoint presentations.




  • Transnational school visit – the build-up continues

    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:

  • Plan for Nuth station praised as a great example of public transport interchange

    Plan for Nuth station praised as a great example of public transport interchange

    Plans to turn a Dutch railway station into a vibrant public transport interchange have been welcomed by regional officials, as the scheme moves closer to implementation.

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    As part of the Citizens’ Rail project, the Parkstad Limburg city region in the south of the Netherlands has made improvement plans for three regional train stations. From the very beginning, the plans have been created in partnership with inhabitants and local businesses.

    One of the stations is in Nuth, a small community of 16,000 inhabitants along the intercity line between Eindhoven and Heerlen. The station is served by regional trains only. The Nuth plan includes creating an interchange between bus and train, bringing the bus route to the railway station.

    It also includes a crossing to connect people to tourism opportunities, leisure activities and neighbouring communities to the east, and measures to enhance the station’s facilities and attractiveness. It will incorporate creative suggestions from international students who came together to discuss the station at a Citizens’ Rail masterclass in 2013.

    The plan has now been discussed with local government for the Nuth area and with the province, which is responsible for regional rail. The province has welcomed the initiative and regards the plan as a very good example of an interchange in line with their vision on public transport interchanges. Together the three parties have decided to take the next step forward. This will involve creating a more detailed plan and mapping out phases for implementation. The first measures, which will form part of Parkstad Limburg’s work within Citizens’ Rail, will be realised in 2015.

    [icon size=”14px” color=”#D42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-chevron-sign-right” spacing=”0px” /] Read more about Parkstad Limburg’s work as part of Citizens’ Rail.


  • 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.







  • Transnational masterclass

    Transnational masterclass

    Students from all four of the Citizens’ Rail partner countries came together in Heerlen in the Netherlands and Aachen in Germany for a two-day masterclass to learn, collaborate and generate radical new visions for local stations.

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    The masterclass on Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th October 2013 included site visits to stations including Nuth, Aachen Eilendorf and Aachen West. The 48 students (from Plymouth University, the University of Central Lancashire, L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique, Hogeschool Zuyd and RWTH Aachen University) came from a range of disciplines including geography, tourism, design and civil engineering. They formed four international multi-disciplinary teams to create impressive visions for improvements to Nuth and Eilendorf stations (PDFs):

    [box close=”false” color=”#36A9E1″ icon=”” ]Eilendorf
    Blue team[/box]
    [box close=”false” color=”#93c01f” icon=”” ]Eilendorf
    Green team[/box]
    [box close=”false” color=”#d42053″ icon=”” ]Nuth
    Red team[/box]
    [box close=”false” color=”#F29100″ icon=”” ]Nuth
    Yellow team[/box]

    The students also benefited from thought-provoking presentations from Prof Martina Fromhold-Eisebith (RWTH Aachen University), UK-based community rail champion Paul Salveson and artist Michel Huisman, the man behind the spectacular “Maankwartier” redevelopment of the nearby Heerlen station.

    The masterclass was organised by Citizens’ Rail partners RWTH Aachen University, the City of Aachen, Aachen Transport Authority (AVV) and Parkstad Limburg.