Category: Project-wide news

Reviving local stations in Pays de la Loire

What brings a speech therapist, a parents’ association representative, a Deputy Mayor and numerous others together in their town hall? Their station of course!

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As part of Citizens’ Rail, consultation has been in full swing this summer in seven villages and towns in the Pays de la Loire who want to safeguard the heritage of their unused railway buildings by transforming them into lively, thriving community hubs.

Région Pays de la Loire and consultants Erea led workshops at the start of July in each local area. Mayors and councillors invited local stakeholders along to discuss possible uses for station buildings left vacant after the closure of ticket offices. Attendees included elected officials, business figures, local residents and many more – all taking part in productive brainstorming sessions.

Around the table, ideas swiftly took shape for possible uses of the stations: as a cycle hire facility, exhibition space, sales point for local businesses (selling organic vegetables, pastries and other farm produce), library book exchange, tourism installation, extension of a speech therapy clinic, local museum, extra space for a youth club, a medical centre, and more.

The sessions led to the emergence of ideas that would not have been generated in any other way. Each locality is now developing its own way forward to progress the project. At Voivres-lès-le-Mans, a municipal steering committee has been created, and staged a large public meeting in September with the villagers.

[icon size=”14px” color=”#D42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-chevron-sign-right” spacing=”0px” /] Update – Between now and spring 2015, as the first part of their rejuvenation, Région Pays de la Loire is installing secure bicycle parking at several of the rural stations. Read more

2014/09/29
Presenting at an international geographers’ conference

Dominik Elsmann from RWTH Aachen University presented on the topic of “Citizens’ Rail – Using citizens‘ participation for rail revitalization” at the International Geographical Union conference in Krakow this month.

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The presentation formed part of the session on “Geography of Governance – Geography, governance and citizens’ participation“. It was a great opportunity to promote the Citizens’ Rail project to a dedicated audience and to exchange knowledge on this important topic. Geographers from all over the world joined the conference, which takes place annually.

View the slides from Dominik’s presentation:

2014/08/27
Friends of Dawlish Station thanked by Secretary of State for Transport

The Friends of Dawlish Station have been personally thanked for their efforts in rejuvenating Dawlish station by the UK’s Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin MP.

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The Secretary of State visited the station with First Great Western, Network Rail and local MP Anne Marie Morris to discuss the future safeguarding of the line and to meet the Friends group and see the fruits of their hard work.

Supported by the EU Citizens’ Rail project, the previously dormant group was revitalised after winter’s devastating storm damage to the line, and gave the station a green makeover in time for its high-profile re-opening in April 2014. The group is now self-sustaining and undertakes regular watering of the plants that now brighten the station. This creates a welcoming first impression for visitors to the town.

The success of the group has been followed by the creation of a new Friends Of Teignmouth Station group at the next station along the line.

[icon size=”14px” color=”#D42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-chevron-sign-right” spacing=”0px” /] Read about how the outstanding teamwork to restore Dawlish station has been shortlisted for a national award.

2014/08/15
Citizens’ Rail projects shortlisted for national awards

Three projects that have benefited from Citizens’ Rail involvement have been shortlisted for UK Community Rail awards.

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The awards are run by The Association of Community Rail Partnerships, a federation of over 50 community rail partnerships and rail promotion groups in the UK. The winners will be announced at a national award ceremony in Scarborough on 2nd October 2014. The shortlisted Citizens’ Rail related projects are:

The Rebuilding of Dawlish Station
OUTSTANDING TEAMWORK CATEGORY
First Great Western, Network Rail, Dawlish Town Council, Friends of Dawlish Station, Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership & other partners

The dramatic events at Dawlish in February 2014 with the breach of the sea wall and closure of the railway led for the first time ever to the issue of Code Black for operational disruption by Network Rail. The reopening of the railway and rebuilding of Dawlish Station just two months later on 4th April was testament to the amazing teamwork of Network Rail, First Great Western, Dawlish Town Council, the Dawlish and Teignmouth Community Interest Company, the Friends of Dawlish Station, local businesses and the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership.

[icon size=”14px” color=”#D42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-chevron-sign-right” spacing=”0px” /] Read about Citizens’ Rail’s involvement.

TheRivieraLine.com
INNOVATION IN COMMUNITY RAIL CATEGORY
Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership

April 2014. Dawlish is re-opening. Optimism is in the air. But how to harness the buzz and attract local people to try the train? Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership’s answer was a radical “one-stop-shop” website for the Exeter-Paignton line. TheRivieraLine.com is believed to be community rail’s first “responsive” website – resizing to suit PCs, tablets and smartphones. Its content is tailor-made to help non-users to overcome barriers to travel. Its people-focused photography brings a fresh, modern look to the sector. First Great Western describe it as “a massive step forward”, and statistics show users love it – staying longer and exploring more.

[icon size=”14px” color=”#D42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-chevron-sign-right” spacing=”0px” /] Visit the website.

Transformation of Torquay Station Garden
Robert Owen Communities Aspects & First Great Western
BEST STATION GARDEN CATEGORY

Torquay station gardens have been transformed by young people with learning difficulties from local organisations working in partnership with First Great Western. Working twice a week in all weathers, the station platforms have been transformed with planting on an English Riviera theme including reclamation of a large rockery and plans for the future to include a restored boat. The project has not only improved the look and feel of Torquay station but has allowed the young people to gain confidence, social interaction and nationally recognised qualifications to help them into employment.

[icon size=”14px” color=”#D42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-chevron-sign-right” spacing=”0px” /] Read about Citizens’ Rail’s involvement.

2014/08/07
Citizens’ Rail at the International Geographical Union

Dominik Elsmann from RWTH Aachen University has been accepted to speak at the International Geographical Union’s 2014 conference on “Citizens’ Rail – Using citizens‘ participation for rail revitalization”.

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The conference takes place next month in Krakow, and the presentation will form part of the session on “Geography of Governance – Geography, governance and citizens’ participation“. It is a great opportunity to promote the Citizens’ Rail project to a dedicated audience and to exchange knowledge on this important topic. Geographers from all over the world will join the conference, which takes place annually.

2014/07/18
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!

2014/07/14
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:

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.

2014/06/23
Call for volunteers to help Teignmouth station bloom

Volunteers are being sought for a new gardening group to brighten Teignmouth’s railway station as part of the rejuvenation of the Riviera Line as part of Citizens’ Rail.

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The Friends of Teignmouth Station will help to plan the greenery on the platforms and get involved in planting and watering. The station has already benefited from planters cared for by green-fingered Caroline, a member of the First Great Western customer services team at the station. The new group will expand on this work.

The formation of the Friends is being supported by the EU Citizens’ Rail project, led by the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, to get more people involved with their railway. Along the Riviera Line between Exeter and Paignton, the project has already helped to revive the previously dormant Friends of Dawlish Station. The Dawlish volunteers received 15 minutes of fame when their green station makeover with TV gardener Toby Buckland was featured in the national media as part of the re-opening of the line in April.

Celia Minoughan, Riviera Line project officer at the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership (pictured above with First Great Western’s Ian Mundy), said: “The impact that the volunteers have had at Dawlish station shows what can be achieved. Whether you’re an experienced gardener or an enthusiastic beginner, it would be great to hear from you so we can make a real difference to passengers at Teignmouth.”

To find out more or get involved, contact Celia on 01752 584777 or at celia@citizensrail.org.

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.

2014/06/06
“Beach train” project wins national award

Citizens’ Rail’s “Beach train” project has won an award at a ceremony recognising the best regional transport projects in France.

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The summer weekend service was introduced by Citizens’ Rail partner Pays de la Loire on the previously struggling La Roche-sur-Yon line in July 2013.

Supported by a fantastic marketing campaign, the train was a huge success – with more than 5,300 extra journeys made, and an average ridership of 171 people per train, rising to 359 people on the busiest service. Passengers gave an overwhelming thumbs up to the service, with satisfaction ratings hitting 90% and the only grumble being overcrowding – and this on a line which is sometimes practically deserted.

The beach train is now back for an extended season in 2014 (1st May to 28 September), helping to take a line blighted by having too few trains and even fewer passengers and transforming it into a thriving resource that boosts tourism and the economy.

The project won the “Passenger service” category at the national Grand Prix des Régions awards held by French transport sector magazine Ville, Rail & Transports.

The awards, now in their fourth year, recognise the country’s very best regional transport projects. The “Passenger service” category recognises new services benefiting TER passengers. The award was presented to Gilles Bontemps, Pays de la Loire’s Vice-President for Transport, on 13th May 2014.

[icon size=”14px” color=”#D42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-chevron-sign-right” spacing=”0px” /] Read more about the winners of each category on the Ville, Rail & Transports website

[icon size=”14px” color=”#D42053″ background=”#ffffff” radius=”0px” type=”icon-chevron-sign-right” spacing=”0px” /] Read more about Pays de la Loire’s work within Citizens’ Rail

2014/05/20
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.

2014/04/25