Our latest partner meeting took place in London last week – and included some excellent opportunities to learn from the Department for Transport, the East Japan Railway Company, and Crossrail.
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
