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Community Rail News – 23 June 2021

Hi everyone, we hope you’re all keeping well. We provide below some further updates on the new National Rail Contracts, as details are emerging on what these contain with reference to community rail. Plus see below for information on entering this year’s Awards and watching back our sustainability-focused webinars.

National Rail Contracts

As you’ll be aware, National Rail Contracts (NRCs) are succeeding the emergency measures agreements and acting as ‘stepping stones’ towards the new Passenger Service Contracts, as part of the reforms announced in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail. With some NRCs starting to be implemented for the first few train operators, and more in the pipeline, we know you’re keen to understand more about what this means for community rail. We have been liaising with the Department for Transport regarding the NRCs and support included for community rail, and we have put together this brief summary to help.

Of course, you can and should continue to speak to your usual train operator contacts about what’s happening in your area, and whether there are opportunities for you to feed into business planning. Or let your normal contact within our support and development team know if they can help. We will provide further updates on the contracts when we can.

Summer Days Out Better by Rail

The launch of our campaign has been postponed from 30 June due to the delay in lockdown restrictions being lifted by UK Government. We’re conscious of the changing environment and are looking at different options regarding timing and messaging. We’ll provide an update early July through Community Rail News, our website and social media. In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like to hear more about how to get involved, please contact Alice.

Webinars resources

Our two most recent webinars – Promoting rail’s green credentials and Encouraging modal shift through community engagement – are available to watch again on our YouTube channel and our website, where you can also download all the slides. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up to date with all our webinar and other video content.

Community Rail Awards – enter now

A reminder that entries for this year’s Community Rail Awards are now open here. To assist the planning of your entry, read our entry booklet, take a look at our 2020 winners for examples, watch our webinar on how to submit a great awards entry, or take advantage of our drop-in surgeries. Please note that there have been a number of changes this year as we allow for the challenges that the pandemic has brought, including some adjusted categories, criteria and timings. Full details are in the entry booklet.

Your next bulletin is on 7 July. Keep up-to-date in between on Twitter and Facebook.

Best wishes,

Jools and Richard

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