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Community Rail News – 16 November 2022

Hello everyone. As always, we hope this newsletter finds you all well. Firstly, an important announcement: Richard Burningham has taken the tough decision to stand down as Chair of our board in order to focus on his work at Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, although he remains on our board. We all offer our great thanks to Richard for all his support and leadership over the past four years. Jeremy Whitaker, previously one of our two Vice-Chairs, has been elected as our new Chair, while Marion Atkinson remains as Vice-Chair, and Garfield Southall will now serve as both the second Vice-Chair and Secretary. These bulletin intros will therefore from now on come to you from Jools and Jeremy.

We also have various events, training opportunities and campaigns coming up we wanted to remind you about:

Webinar: Connecting & empowering our diverse communities – Tues 6 Dec 10am-12pm

This online session will take an in-depth look at how we can most effectively connect with and empower people across our diverse communities. Book your place here

Online networking for community rail officers – Weds 30 Nov 9:30am-12:30pm

This is a chance for community rail officers to share successes and discuss priorities and issues. Officers will have received an invite and booking link directly. If you haven’t had this, email training@communityrail.org.uk.

Online networking for station adoption volunteers – Weds 14 Dec 10am-12:30pm

This session will be held on Zoom and we’ll be using the break-out room function so you can talk in smaller groups with fellow adopters. You’ll get the chance to find out what others are up to, discuss successes and plans. This session is for member groups only. Book your place here.

Community Rail Conference

Our annual conference for community rail partnerships, run jointly with the DfT, will take place on 27/28 March in Nottingham. Full details will be confirmed in the New Year, but please put the dates in your diaries now.

Community Rail Week

We are still firming up the dates but hope the 2023 event will take place 22-28 May, TBC – watch this space for more details. We are also delighted that Rail Delivery Group have confirmed their sponsorship of the event for the third time running – huge thanks to them. 

New Year New Journeys campaign

Traditionally, January is seen as a time for a ‘fresh start’, with many people making resolutions and deciding what they want to achieve in the year ahead. With that in mind, we are pleased to be planning a national campaign to launch on 1 January for three weeks – ‘New Year New Journeys’. The campaign aims to encourage people to make small changes to their travel habits by pledging to take the train when they can through the year, and highlighting community rail lines. Find more info here on how you can get involved, or contact Alice on alice@communityrail.org.uk.

Christmas is coming!

In our next bulletin on 30 November we will be including all your festive news, including events and activities you have planned. Please get in touch with our Comms and policy team by 10am on Tuesday 29 November via news@communityrail.org with what you have planned.

Community rail in the House of Lords

We were pleased to see evidence of the positive links between community rail and the recovery of communities and their railways referred to in the House of Lords Built Environment report, “Public transport in towns and cities”, after Jools gave evidence to their inquiry. The report also states that experts giving evidence to the inquiry attested that private car use needs to be reduced by 30% to meet net zero targets. Take a look here.

If you have any news stories, please email our communications team on news@communityrail.org.uk

Your next bulletin is on 30 November. Keep up-to-date in between on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Best wishes
Richard, Jeremy and Jools