Citizens' Rail

Tag: bestpractice-FR

  • Nos plus belles réussites

    Nos plus belles réussites

    Après trois années fantastiques, le projet Citizens’ Rail se termine à la fin du mois. Qu’avons-nous réalisé ? Découvrez-le avec notre poster interactif.

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    Merci encore à toutes celles et ceux qui ont participé à ce projet inspirant et passionnant. Citizens’ Rail continue à vivre par l’intermédiaire de son kit d’outils et de notre réseau en ligne, nous vous invitons à venir participer à ce travail commun visant à développer nos chemins de fer régionaux.

  • Masterclasses featured as ELTIS case study

    Masterclasses featured as ELTIS case study

    Citizens’ Rail’s pair of student masterclasses have been featured on the European urban mobility portal ELTIS.

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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.

    Read the case study

  • Citizens’ Rail récompensé à la remise des prix nationaux du rail pour la communauté

    Citizens’ Rail récompensé à la remise des prix nationaux du rail pour la communauté

    Au Royaume-Uni, Citizens’ Rail a été honoré trois fois aux Récompenses nationales du rail pour la communauté, à Torquay la semaine passée.

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    Devant un public de plus de 330 personnes, composé de personnel du secteur ferroviaire et de bénévoles, le projet Citizens’ Rail dans son ensemble a été reconnu dans la catégorie Travail d’équipe exceptionnel. Nos partenaires britanniques, français, allemands et hollandais ont remporté la troisième place grâce à leur implication dans un travail transnational et leur apport en projets collaboratifs imaginatifs, qui allaient au-delà de la portée originale du projet. Parmi ces projets, il y a eu un beau voyage des élèves d’une école du Lancashire pour visiter l’école de la cathédrale de la ville allemande d’Aix-la-Chapelle, des masterclass étudiants qui ont aidé à appliquer les idées des jeunes dans le monde réel du rail, et même la donation de tulipes hollandaises pour fleurir les jardins des gares dans le Devon.

    Deux projets participants à Citizens’ Rail ont également été récompensés lors de la cérémonie :

    L’amusante “piste des petites bêtes” (Minibeast Trail en anglais), sur la ligne de la Riviera entre Exeter et Torbay, réalisée grâce au Partenariat ferroviaire de Devon & Cornouailles, s’est vue octroyé le troisième prix dans la catégorie des petites initiatives artistiques pour la communauté. Accompagnés par l’artiste Melissa Muldoon, des enfants de l’école primaire Gatehouse à Dawlish et du club “Stay and Play” (Sure Start Dad) à Teignmouth ont fabriqué des papillons, libellules, abeilles, coccinelles et escargots à partir de plastique recyclé. Les petites bêtes ont ensuite été installées dans les bacs à fleurs des gares de Teignmouth, Dawlish, Newton Abbot, Torquay et Paignton.

    Le projet “Distance Between” par nos partenaires du Lancashire et d’Aix-la-Chapelle a également remporté le troisième prix dans la catégorie Impliquer les jeunes. Une classe d’enfants des écoles primaires d’une ancienne ville ouvrière du Lancashire a été invitée à participer à l’ouverture de la gare de Burnley Manchester Road dans le cadre du projet Citizens’ Rail. Ils l’ont fait d’excellente manière. En conséquence, la classe a participé à un échange culturel qui les as amené à Aix-la-Chapelle et Heerlen. Pour beaucoup d’enfants, c’était leur premier déplacement hors du Lancashire. Ils ont passé du temps à travailler avec une classe d’écoliers allemands, produisant des créations qui sont maintenant visibles dans les gares du Lancashire, à Aix-la-Chapelle et à Herleen.

    La cérémonie des Récompenses du rail pour la communauté (Community Rail Awards) est organisée chaque année par l’Association des partenariats du rail pour la communauté, pour saluer le travail accompli vers la promotion et l’amélioration des chemins de fer régionaux et ruraux de Grande-Bretagne. La remise des prix s’est déroulée après la conférence de clôture de Citizens’ Rail, qui l’a précédée le même jour – lire la suite.

  • Join our online network

    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





  • Final conference – a big success

    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.


  • Citizens’ Rail final conference

    Citizens’ Rail final conference

    We’re excited to welcome expert speakers from across North West Europe who will be presenting at the Citizens’ Rail final conference in Torquay on 1st October.

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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.





  • Students’ innovative Wi-Fi idea becomes a reality

    Students’ innovative Wi-Fi idea becomes a reality

    A ground-breaking idea conceived at our recent Citizens’ Rail student masterclass has been implemented by the UK rail industry within just three months.

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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.

    The students saw an opportunity to promote leisure trips on local and regional lines using the Wi-Fi connection screens on mainline trains.

    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.

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    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.




  • Presentation to UK Rail Minister

    Presentation to UK Rail Minister

    Citizens’ Rail was in the spotlight this week at a Community Rail Marketplace event at the UK’s Department for Transport.

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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.

  • Citizens’ Rail to present at European mobility conference

    Citizens’ Rail to present at European mobility conference

    Citizens’ Rail’s academic team will be presenting at the European Conference on Mobility Management (ECOMM 2015) in May.

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    In a positive example of transnational working, Nick Davies and Richard Weston (University of Central Lancashire, UK) and Dominik Elsmann and Marco Trienes (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) have prepared a paper on “Understanding Citizens’ Rail: how marketing and social outreach can encourage involvement by the public in their rail services and change attitudes towards rail”.

    This has now been accepted as part of the “Understanding the user” presentation session at the conference, to be held in Utrecht in the Netherlands from 20th to 22nd May 2015.

    Visit the conference website to find out more.

  • Joint meeting with UITP

    Joint meeting with UITP

    Citizens’ Rail partners enjoyed a productive joint meeting with UITP’s Regional and Suburban Railways committee last week, held in the South West of England.

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    UITP, also known as The International Association of Public Transport, champions sustainable urban mobility and is the only worldwide network to bring together all public transport stakeholders and all sustainable transport modes. It has 1,300 member companies from 92 countries. Its members include public transport authorities and operators, policy decision-makers, research institutes and the public transport supply and service industry.

    The association’s Regional and Suburban Railways committee joined Citizens’ Rail partners for presentations, networking opportunities and rail trips over the course of two days, taking in locations including Plymouth, Calstock and Torquay. The joint meeting, hosted by the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, was made possible thanks to Ian Ambrose at Network Rail, who is part of both the UITP committee and the Citizens’ Rail project.

    Some photographs from the joint meeting:

    The UITP contingent arrive on the scenic Tamar Valley Line for the first meeting in Calstock. This photo was taken from the balcony of the Calstock Arts Centre, our picturesque meeting venue (see further photo below):

    At the Calstock Arts Centre, Paul Alzer from Parkstad Limburg presents some tulip bulbs to help brighten stations on The Riviera Line (Exeter-Paignton):

    Mal McGreevy, chairman of the Regional and Suburban Railways committee and General Manager, Rail Services for Northern Ireland Railways, Translink (second from right), explores Calstock with Citizens’ Rail partners:

    In Torquay, Kai Mohnen from Stadt Aachen presented the work happening in the German city as part of Citizens’ Rail:

    Delegates each received an information pack / goodie bag: