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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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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 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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The two-day workshop, hosted in Preston (UK) by the University of Central Lancashire in March 2015, brought together students from German, Dutch and UK universities to develop fresh ideas for how to promote local and regional railways.
Citizens’ Rail partners chose marketing as the focus for the masterclass because marketing campaigns are often simpler and quicker to implement than other rail projects. Students were therefore motivated by the knowledge that their proposals could soon be put into practice.
The Wi-Fi idea
The first idea to be realised came from the transnational group of students that was developing marketing campaigns targeted at tourists and leisure travellers.
Implementing the concept
The idea was swiftly pursued by Citizens’ Rail’s lead partner, the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership.
Alongside its work within the European project, the Partnership was in the middle of planning a separate campaign to promote Cornwall’s scenic branch lines and destinations. The campaign harnessed the popularity of the BBC series Poldark. In spring 2015 the hit British television programme had prominently featured Cornwall’s beautiful coast, countryside and mining heritage. The Partnership therefore developed a theme of “Visit Poldark country by train”.
As well as a flagship event at London Paddington, leaflets and other materials, the Partnership created a mini-website showing how to visit filming locations from the programme by train.
Thanks to the masterclass, train operator First Great Western agreed to promote the campaign on the onboard Wi-Fi of their fleet of High Speed Trains. Now, when users connect to Wi-Fi aboard the train, they are greeted with the “Visit Poldark country by train” message.
When they click “Continue”, they are taken to the First Great Western homepage, which prominently features a link to the Partnership’s campaign website. The Wi-Fi promotion will continue to run until the later in the summer, helping to promote First Great Western’s branch lines to users of other parts of its network.
The results
The campaign has already led to a 40% increase in the Partnership’s web traffic compared to the same period the previous year – attracting 10,000 visitors in just five weeks. The Partnership has also put the project forward for a national Community Rail Award (winners to be announced in October 2015).
The project shows the power of involving young people in their railway, and the difference that their fresh perspectives and innovative ideas can bring.
Participating universities
Citizens’ Rail would like to thank all the students and universities that took part. The event, which was the follow-up to our first masterclass in Aachen and Parkstad Limburg in 2013, was a great example of the transnational working that is at the heart of the EU Interreg IVB NWE programme, through which Citizens’ Rail is funded.
University of Central Lancashire
Plymouth University
RWTH Aachen University
Zuyd Hogeschool
Read more about the masterclass and see the students’ PowerPoint presentations.
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The Dear Hunter team, made up of Marlies Vermeulen and Remy Kroese, will be interviewing passers-by, students and local residents throughout May and June, and even inviting members of the public to stay the night in their temporary hunter’s lodge.
Funded through the Interreg IV A Dear Euregio project, their findings will be reported back to Aachen City Council and will help to inform the development of the station and the surrounding university quarter.
When deciding where on campus to host the project, Aachen West was selected as the exact location so that the results could complement the city’s existing involvement in the Citizens’ Rail project. Since 2012, Aachen West has been one of three target areas within the city where communities have been consulted and station improvements planned.
Kai Mohnen of Aachen City Council (pictured third from the right below) said:
“With this unconventional form of participation we will get to know what young people and students in particular think of Aachen West – and what their needs and wishes are when it comes to future improvements.”
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Richard Burningham, manager of our lead partner the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, delivered a presentation about the Citizens’ Rail project to an audience including high level Department for Transport officials and national and local representatives from the community rail sector.
The Rail Partnership also had a stall at the event, promoting Citizens’ Rail and other projects, which was visited by Rail Minister Claire Perry and Clare Moriarty, Department for Transport Rail Director General.
The Marketplace brought together Community Rail Partnerships from across the country as part of the Department for Transport’s Learning at Work Week. The Marketplace was organised by Kul Bassi, Community Rail Team Leader at the Department for Transport and aimed to raise awareness of the Community Rail world among civil servants.
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Train operator First Great Western plays a major role in Citizens’ Rail’s Riviera Line project, and holds the event each year to bring together all those involved with, or who have an interest in, the various Community Rail lines and activities across the region. This year’s conference on 19th March was held in Bristol, European Green Capital 2015.
The website presentation was prompted by interest in Citizens’ Rail’s award-winning TheRivieraLine.com website, pictured above.
[power_title color=”#404040″ ]Slides from the presentation[/power_title]
You can read more about these topics thanks to a list of additional resources compiled to support the talk.