Community Rail Lancashire’s (CRL) rebranded education programme, TrainEd, was launched on Monday 9 January at ‘The Bunker’ in Accrington.

After many successful years delivering rail education across Lancashire and Yorkshire, it was felt that creating a new brand would be more inclusive of all the schools, colleges, groups and communities covered by the CRL Education Team.

The rebrand, part funded by Community Rail Network, consisted of designing and producing a new brand name, logo, website and animation, as well as funding a uniform for the team along with merchandise to help promote the TrainEd programme.

The new website features information on how to get involved and sign up for engagement, lots of resources for schools and community groups, and details of all the projects the team are working on.

The launch of TrainEd also tied in with the recruitment of Catherine Kingdom, who will be covering Karen Bennett’s engagement in West Yorkshire whilst she carries out her secondment at Community Rail Network. Catherine has over 20 years’ experience teaching in schools and SEND (special education needs and disabilities) settings and is a welcome addition to the team.

As for the rest of the CRL Education Team:

• Karen will continue her work as education team leader at CRL on Mondays and Fridays.
• Dave Savage will focus on Avanti’s Feel-Good Field Trips campaign.
• Shahiesta Raja will look after engagement on the Lancashire side.
• Katie Douglas will head up all matters inclusion and diversity.

Karen Bennett commented at the launch: “The new TrainEd website and brand is an exciting landmark in the development of our education engagement work. We look forward to continuing and expanding our engagement across the North and hope that schools, colleges and local community groups across the UK find the resources on our website useful. We look forward to hearing from you!”

The TrainEd team would love to hear from education providers and community groups across Lancashire and West Yorkshire to support with rail safety, career, sustainability and travel confidence education. If you would like to get in touch, contact Karen at karen.bennett@communityraillancashire.co.uk.

Visit the new TrainEd website here.