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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
Citizens’ Rail projects featured in UITP newsletter

We’re grateful to UITP (The International Association of Public Transport) for featuring a pair of Citizens’ Rail articles in their latest Regional and Suburban Rail newsletter.

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The collaboration follows the fruitful joint meeting last month between Citizens’ Rail and UITP’s Regional and Suburban Railways committee. The first of the featured stories is an abridged version of our ‘Invisible Stations‘ article, detailing how we are helping to improve hidden and anonymous-looking stations in the UK, France and Germany. The second shines a light on the excellent work of volunteers at Dawlish (Devon, UK) to help revive their station following last winter’s horrendous storms.

[button size=”small” color=”#ffffff” background=”#d42053″ radius=”0px” type=”flat” link=”http://www.flexmail.eu/r-d35e2b3508d1fddb41730bf4aadbda524d5d48f4335bbaa4″ newwindow=”false” icon=”” ]Read the UITP newsletter[/button]

2014/11/14
Citizens’ Rail projects featured in UITP newsletter

We’re grateful to UITP (The International Association of Public Transport) for featuring a pair of Citizens’ Rail articles in their latest Regional and Suburban Rail newsletter.

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

The collaboration follows the fruitful joint meeting last month between Citizens’ Rail and UITP’s Regional and Suburban Railways committee. The first of the featured stories is an abridged version of our ‘Invisible Stations‘ article, detailing how we are helping to improve hidden and anonymous-looking stations in the UK, France and Germany. The second shines a light on the excellent work of volunteers at Dawlish (Devon, UK) to help revive their station following last winter’s horrendous storms.

[button size=”small” color=”#ffffff” background=”#d42053″ radius=”0px” type=”flat” link=”http://www.flexmail.eu/r-d35e2b3508d1fddb41730bf4aadbda524d5d48f4335bbaa4″ newwindow=”false” icon=”” ]Read the UITP newsletter[/button]

2014/11/14
Citizens’ Rail projects featured in UITP newsletter

We’re grateful to UITP (The International Association of Public Transport) for featuring a pair of Citizens’ Rail articles in their latest Regional and Suburban Rail newsletter.

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

The collaboration follows the fruitful joint meeting last month between Citizens’ Rail and UITP’s Regional and Suburban Railways committee. The first of the featured stories is an abridged version of our ‘Invisible Stations‘ article, detailing how we are helping to improve hidden and anonymous-looking stations in the UK, France and Germany. The second shines a light on the excellent work of volunteers at Dawlish (Devon, UK) to help revive their station following last winter’s horrendous storms.

[button size=”small” color=”#ffffff” background=”#d42053″ radius=”0px” type=”flat” link=”http://www.flexmail.eu/r-d35e2b3508d1fddb41730bf4aadbda524d5d48f4335bbaa4″ newwindow=”false” icon=”” ]Read the UITP newsletter[/button]

2014/11/14
Citizens’ Rail supports Santa Special

Citizens’ Rail is lending a helping hand to First Great Western’s charity fundraising Santa Special train from Newton Abbot station in Devon.

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On Sunday 21st December Santa is visiting the Newton Abbot to Heathfield railway, the former ‘Teign Valley’ Heathfield line. First Great Western are working with Network Rail, the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership (Citizens’ Rail’s lead partner) and the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust to put on this very special event.

Citizens’ Rail’s Riviera Line Officer has helped to recruit volunteers to help at the event. The Friends of Dawlish and Teignmouth Stations and rail user groups will be joining First Great Western to give away free mince pies and talk to passengers about great value days out by train.

Tickets for these exciting trips are set to sell out quickly and all proceeds will be donated to the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust.

From Wednesday 19th November, tickets will be available from the booking office at Newton Abbot on a first come, first served basis (cash only).

Find out more – click the event poster below to enlarge:

2014/11/13
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
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!

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

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
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!

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

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
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!

[divider type=”default” vspace=”20px” hspace=”0%” /]

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