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Thanks to all who have contributed to such an inspirational and enjoyable project. Citizens’ Rail will live on through our toolkit and in our online network – we welcome you to join as we work together to develop our local and regional railways.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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In front of an audience of more than 330 rail industry staff and volunteers, the Citizens’ Rail project as a whole was recognised in the Outstanding Teamwork category. Our UK, French, Dutch and German partners were awarded third place thanks to their dedication to transnational working and delivering imaginative, collaborative projects that went beyond the original scope of the project. These included a once-in-a-life-time trip for Lancashire school children to visit the cathedral school in the German city of Aachen, student masterclasses that helped young people’s ideas to be implemented by the rail industry, and even the donation of Dutch tulips to brighten station gardens in Devon.
Two projects within Citizens’ Rail were also recognised at the awards:
The Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership’s family-friendly Minibeast Trail on the Riviera Line between Exeter and Torbay was awarded third place in the Small Community Art Schemes category. Working with artist Melissa Muldoon, pupils from Gatehouse Primary School in Dawlish and the Sure Start Dad’s Club Stay and Play in Teignmouth made sculptures of butterflies, dragonflies, bees, ladybirds and snails from recycled plastic. They were displayed on planters at Teignmouth, Dawlish, Newton Abbot, Torquay and Paignton stations.
The “Distance Between” project by our Lancashire and Aachen partners also won third prize in the Involving Young People category. A class of primary school children from a former Lancashire mill town were asked to get involved in the opening of Burnley Manchester Road station as part of Citizens’ Rail. They did so in great style. As a result, the class took part in a cultural exchange taking them to Aachen and Heerlen. Many of the children had never been out of Lancashire before. They spent time working with a class of German school children producing artwork now displayed at stations in Lancashire, Aachen and Heerlen.
The Community Rail Awards is an annual event organised by the Association of Community Rail Partnerships which celebrates the work being done to promote and enhance Britain’s local and rural railways. The awards ceremony followed Citizens’ Rail’s final conference held earlier the same day – read more.
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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.
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.
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.
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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
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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):
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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.
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We were extremely grateful that Clare Moriarty, Director General for the Rail Executive, and Norihito Kuroyanagi of the East Japan Railway Company (JR-East) joined our meeting at the Department for Transport on Thursday 5th March 2015.
Clare was particularly interested in Citizens’ Rail’s work with schools, praising how our partners are balancing safety messages with making local and regional railways welcoming and engaging.
Norihito gave an excellent presentation on how JR-East involve communities in Japan. This ranged from children’s projects to innovative shops at urban stations that sell rural produce and encourage passengers to visit outlying areas by train.
In the afternoon, we were invited to train operator First Great Western’s headquarters in Swindon, where we heard updates from each of our partners and collaborated on next steps. We then held a photocall to celebrate the launch of the Citizens’ Rail train livery (see photos).
The following day we received a tour and series of interesting presentations from Crossrail – the new high frequency, high capacity railway for London and the South East. Our tour included a rooftop view of works to transform Whitechapel, during which we heard how Crossrail is working with the community to minimise disruption and keep people informed.
Meeting at First Great Western headquarters, Swindon
Our partners pose with the Citizens’ Rail train – see more photos
Discussing the work at Whitechapel, with the City of London in the background
The challenge at Whitechapel is to undertake major infrastructure work in a busy and heavily built-up area