Blog

Progress in Parkstad Limburg

The Citizens’ Rail project will have a lasting legacy at Nuth station, with the completion of a bus-train interchange that will integrate transport in the neighbourhood by bringing more bus routes into the railway station.

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The new interchange (shown above) will be in use from 2016, and received € 130 000 funding from the Citizens’ Rail project. Further plans for the station include 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.

In 2014, the plans were discussed with local government for the Nuth area and with the province, which is responsible for regional rail. The province welcomed the initiative and regards the work as a very good example of an interchange in line with their vision on public transport interchanges.

Meanwhile in news from one of Citizens’ Rail’s other projects in Parkstad Limburg, Kerkrade-Centrum station has received a boost with the opening of the neighbouring Creative City complex and a new Park & Ride at the station – shown below.

2015/10/26
Join our online network

Interested in involving people in local and regional railways? Join us!

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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).

Visit the Community Rail Cafe

2015/10/13
Join our online network

Interested in involving people in local and regional railways? Join us!

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

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).

Visit the Community Rail Cafe

2015/10/13
Join our online network

Interested in involving people in local and regional railways? Join us!

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

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).

Visit the Community Rail Cafe

2015/10/13
Explore our Toolkit

We are pleased to launch the Citizens’ Rail toolkit, and invite you to explore it.

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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.

Explore the toolkit

2015/10/06
Explore our Toolkit

We are pleased to launch the Citizens’ Rail toolkit, and invite you to explore it.

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

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.

Explore the toolkit

2015/10/06
Explore our Toolkit

We are pleased to launch the Citizens’ Rail toolkit, and invite you to explore it.

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

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.

Explore the toolkit

2015/10/06
Citizens’ Rail recognised at national Community Rail Awards

Citizens’ Rail was a triple winner at the UK’s national Community Rail Awards held in Torquay last week.

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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.

2015/10/05
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.
2015/10/05
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.

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

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.
2015/10/05