Hello everyone. We hope this finds you well and we’re looking forward to seeing many of you at our Community Rail Conference next week, run jointly with the Department for Transport for community rail partnership (CRPs).
Passenger numbers bounce back on CRP lines
Journeys on lines with community rail partnerships have recovered faster than the average across Britain’s railways since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to figures released this week by the Office of Rail and Road. At the end of December, the number of passenger journeys across the network stood at 79% of pre-Covid (2019-20) levels, compared to 82% on lines with CRPs. This follows a pattern of lines with CRPs seeing higher journey figures than the overall average for every quarter since the start of 2020-21. Read our full briefing here.
Project management and outcomes session
This one-day online course will run on Monday 24 April, 9.45am-3.15pm. It will provide an overview of project management tools and techniques and give you a chance to consider how to put them into practice. You will be able to share experiences with other participants and learn from each other. This workshop is aimed at CRP officers, but other members are welcome. Book your place.
Community Rail Week ideas and guidance
We hope you are starting to think about your plans for Community Rail Week along the theme of ‘Connecting communities by rail’. For ideas and support on how you can get involved, visit our webpage and speak to your usual team contact for guidance.
Communications drop-ins
Our drop-in sessions for members on communications and PR continue to take place on the first Thursday of the month (next on 6 April), 4-6pm on Zoom, run by Sarah C, Alice and Erin. There’s no need to book – just drop in using this link anytime within the slot.
Community Rail Development Fund
We are pleased to announce that the 2023-24 round of the Community Rail Development Fund for accredited CRPs in England and Wales will open for applications on 1 April 2023. You can see the application details and funding criteria here for this grant scheme that we administer on behalf of the Department for Transport.
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 5 April. Keep up-to-date in between on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Best wishes,
Jeremy and Jools
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