Community Rail News – 15 November 2023

November 15, 2023

Hello everyone, it was lovely to see many of you at the Community Rail Conference for CRPs this week. A huge thanks to all speakers, delegates, partners, and our brilliant events team, for making the Conference, run jointly with the DfT, such a success, and especially everyone who contributed topics and led discussions. You’ll be able to view the presentations and event summary here by Monday.

Funding diversification

We are still keen to highlight great examples of community rail bringing in funding from wider, non-traditional sources – read one of these examples from Hampshire CRP here. We’re also currently putting together some guidance on fundraising, which will be available in the coming weeks. Please do talk to the team in the meantime for advice.

Draft Rail Reform Bill

A Draft Rail Reform Bill was included in the King’s Speech, which sets the foundations for further progress with rail reform, including the creation of Great British Railways. Read our summary.

Modal integration projects

We are delighted to have approved the first grants from this year’s Integrated Sustainable Transport Fund – read about these projects here. The fund remains open to all our members, and applications will be considered on a rolling basis up until 5pm Thursday 30 November. Find details here or contact Gary to discuss your interest.

Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee at the Welsh Parliament

This week, Jools will be giving evidence to the above committee to inform their work on rail delivery, infrastructure and performance, alongside representatives from Transport Focus and Rail Future Wales. Read the evidence document here.

Railway 200 launch

Yesterday evening, Jools spoke at an event in London marking the build-up to Railway 200, and we are keen to ensure that community rail continues to play a key role in the centenary year. See our article below for how members of the Education Network are starting to plan their involvement. We will update you as plans develop – in the meantime, revisit our briefing.

Skillshare: Trails and Walking Routes

If you’re thinking about developing trails and walking routes from your stations, our next training session on Wednesday 13 December, 10am-12pm, is for you. Hear from other groups and start thinking about developing your own projects. This session is for members only. Book your place.

Members’ survey results

A big thank you to the 107 people who participated in this year’s members’ survey. We have carefully analysed the results to help inform our planning for the next year and beyond, which you can read here.

If you have any news stories, please email our communications team on news@communityrail.org.uk. See here for guidance on submitting stories.

Your next bulletin is on 29 November. Keep up-to-date in between on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Best wishes,
Jeremy and Jools