Previously the ‘Tourism and Leisure Award’.

Community rail plays a vital role in championing sustainable tourism, connecting people with local destinations, supporting local economies, and encouraging more journeys by train. This award celebrates innovative initiatives and events that have inspired people to discover places by rail, reaching audiences beyond the local community.

Our judges are looking for entries that clearly demonstrate how community rail has been at the heart of creating memorable visitor experiences, promoting sustainable travel, strengthening partnerships with local attractions, tourism organisations and businesses, and delivering positive social, environmental and economic benefits for local places.

Note: The judges will give extra consideration to submissions that demonstrate effective partnership working with local businesses, tourism attractions, destination organisations or other partners, alongside the promotion of sustainable and green travel messages.

Any current (paid/subscribed) Community Rail Network member, which may be a community rail partnership (CRP), station adoption / friends’ group or a community station group.

Non-member community groups, or rail industry partners can also submit entries, but only where a project was undertaken in partnership with a Community Rail Network member CRP or station group. The entry must clearly demonstrate this partnership working, showing how the project has fulfilled the judging criteria below. The entry must also be approved by the member group as the primary entry for the joint project and the group’s contact details must be provided.

• Clearly demonstrate, through evidence, the impact of the project - How did it contribute to creating social value? How did it strengthen the community? How did it improve inclusion and accessibility?
• Delivery of an initiative or event that showcased a local leisure and tourism offer, promoted sustainable travel, and improved the overall visitor experience with community rail at its heart;
• Evidence of how the initiative or event was promoted to leisure and tourism audiences beyond the local community (e.g. through social media, distribution of promotional literature, PR & media campaign etc.);
• Demonstration of creative partnerships, working together to achieve results. Partners may include local attractions, heritage railway lines, tourism businesses or third sector organisations;
• Evidence of an effective evaluation approach including details of the estimated visitor reach, feedback, and outcomes achieved.

The 'Championing Tourism by Rail Award' is available for sponsorship. Please contact events@communityrail.org.uk for details.

2026 1st Place Winner - Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership for 'More Time in Looe'

The Looe Valley Line’s May 2025 improved timetable is a story of community rail and the tourism sector working together to deliver greater value for the rail network, visitor economy and local communities.

The project began when a hotelier in Looe reported to Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership (DCRP) that her guests would benefit from quicker connections with the main line at Liskeard and improved stopping patterns at intermediate stations. DCRP liaised with Great Western Railway, who were able to turn these local transport priorities into a reality. The timetable changes meant that journeys to Looe from Plymouth, the nearest city, were now up to 20 minutes quicker than before.

DCRP took the initiative further, working with a range of tourism partners across a variety of media to promote the timetable and Looe’s leisure offer. Leaflets, guided walks, digital content and station posters were created encompassing four main themes: quicker journeys, coastal walks, evenings out and local heritage. Nearly 50 social media posts saw the campaign reach 1.2 million people, attracting 17,000 likes, including eye-catching Instagram videos posted simultaneously to followers of DCRP, Great Western Railway, South West Coast Path, Visit Cornwall, Visit Looe and Welcome to Looe & Polperro.

This translated into ‘bums on seats’. More than 60,000 journeys have been made on the Looe Valley Line since the May timetable was introduced; late June to mid-September registered the line’s busiest summer on record, and 2025 is firmly on track to be the line’s most successful year ever.

2025 1st Place Winner - Bishop Line CRP for 'Explore the Bishop Line by Train this Summer'

The North East of England is home to some world class attractions telling the story of the birth of the modern passenger railway, and Bishop Line CRP wanted to deliver a tourism marketing campaign to increase awareness of how many attractions along their line are easily accessible by rail.

The campaign was executed through print, digital and social media, featuring spotlights on six different attractions and calls-to-action for interested visitors. Messages spread even wider on social media, with attractions not included in the campaign commenting on posts with their own offers and positive sentiment, showing an appetite to expand the campaign in future.

The campaign was well-received across all channels, and Northern Trains ticket data even showed an increase from summer 2023 for the stations featured in the campaign. In Rail Period 5 (21 July – 17 August), ticket sales to North Road Station serving Hopetown Darlington increased by 196% from 1,072 to 2,105, and ticket sales to Shildon Station serving Locomotion increased by 157% from 1,781 to 2,798. The two independent small businesses at Stanhope Station – the café on platform one and craft market on platform two – also benefited from increased trade over the summer as a result of the promotion.

Through the campaign, Bishop Line CRP established the positive impact community rail has to bring together local visitor attractions as a wider, regional tourism offer, showing the overwhelming appetite for, and positive benefits of, greener leisure travel options.

Check out previous 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners of this category from 2017-2022.

Entries for our 2027 Awards open at 9am on Tuesday 1 September and close at 5pm on Wednesday 30 September 2026.

Check back then to submit your entry!