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Community Rail News – 13 May 2026

Hello everyone.

With Community Rail Week approaching (1 – 7 June), much of our focus is on celebrating the work taking place across the community rail movement and the difference it makes. This year’s theme, Journeys for All, feels especially fitting. Community rail is about connection: connecting people to opportunities, communities to their railways, and helping ensure rail travel is welcoming, inclusive and accessible for everyone.

We know many of you are planning activities and promotions for the week, and we’d encourage everyone across our network to get involved in whatever way works for you. That might mean hosting an event, collaborating with local partners, sharing stories celebrating volunteers, promoting local projects, or helping to spread the word online. You can use our toolkits for CRPs, station volunteer groups and partners to help you plan and contribute to the biggest, most visible Community Rail Week yet.

We also remain busy engaging policy and decision-makers around rail reform and set-up of Great British Railways, ensuring community rail’s role is recognised, protected and further developed. In recent weeks we’ve had productive conversations with senior contacts at the Department for Transport, Network Rail, DFTO and several train operators, getting across our core recommendations for community rail support, and ways to help community rail create even greater benefit from the railway, for and with local communities.

Lastly, we wanted to update you on the recruitment for our next chief executive. Applications have just closed and we were delighted by the level of interest. Interviews take place over the coming weeks; if all goes to plan, we hope to announce an appointment mid to late June.

Best wishes
Jeremy and Jools

Community Rail Development Fund – now open

Accredited community rail partnerships in England and Wales are invited to apply for the 2026-27 Community Rail Development Fund, intended to support projects and activities set out in a CRP’s annual plans. The maximum grant in this funding period is £25,000.

We have made some small changes to the application form based on member feedback, so please make sure to visit our funding webpage to download the latest version. Please get in touch with your usual contact in our support & development team to discuss project ideas and funding requirements before making an application.

Travelling with Confidence

As part of our Travelling with Confidence project, funded by the Motability Foundation, we have been offering small grants to accredited CRPs to set up initiatives in their local areas. Click here to read about how Kent CRP worked with a local college to co-produce a rail familiarisation trip, empowering young people with special educational needs and disabilities to travel confidently.

Upcoming sessions

Over the coming months, we have an exciting range of online sessions for members covering: education and youth engagement, tourism and leisure, integrated sustainable transport, and networking opportunities for station adopters and community rail officers. Visit our online calendar for details and registration links.

Past event materials

Our website includes a broad range of past event materials where you’ll find recordings and resources from selected webinars and networking sessions. You can catch up on three of our latest sessions: a social media skill-share; a session on the Department for Transport’s ‘connectivity tool’; and an introduction to the British Transport Police and the principles of placemaking for safety and designing out crime.  

Your next bulletin is on 27 May. Keep up-to-date in between on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Bluesky and X.

Send your stories to our news@communityrail.org.uk and see our guidance on submitting stories.

Hereward CRP has produced a series of nine flyers promoting exciting ‘Days Out by Rail’ across the local area. Each flyer has a suggested itinerary on one side, alongside tourist attractions, places to visit and walk options, with a map on the reverse. To promote the materials, the partnership facilitated a visit for Whittlesey u3a walking group to follow the Manea Pit trail route. The partnership will be further promoting the materials at upcoming local community events, as well as on social media during the school holidays. View the full selection of Days Out by Rail flyers here.
Great Big Green Week (6-14 June) is all about communities coming together to enjoy nature, learn new skills, and take action to protect our planet. The team of volunteers that make up Greening Arundel are gearing up for a packed programme of activity centred around three key themes: food, water and biodiversity. Most events are free or at a discounted cost, and include films, visits, talks, walks, hands-on workshops, music, literature and family activities. Explore the selection on Eventbrite.
 
The award-winning group are also delighted to be featured in a recent article in The Guardian, highlighting the opportunities for a stunning and sustainable day out in the nearby village of Amberley.
Volunteers wanted!
 
Railway 200’s ‘Inspiration Train’ is at Blackpool Station from Thursday 14 to Sunday 17 May. The team are currently short on numbers and hoping that some of our wonderful community rail volunteers will be available to support the exhibition train’s visit. If you are interested in helping out, please contact Danielle Lahan on Danielle.Lahan@networkrail.co.uk. Further details about the Inspiration Train can be found here.