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Community Rail News – 26 November 2025

Hello everyone. We hope you are keeping warm and well.

By now the Chancellor will have delivered the much-trailed budget. We will be reviewing and looking for any implications for community rail. You may have already spotted the news that some rail fares will be frozen in England for the first time in 30 years, which we have welcomed. We hope this step forms part of a wider shift towards breaking down barriers, opening up inclusive access to opportunity, and encouraging modal shift onto climate-friendly transport. Read more.

It has been an exceptionally busy period in terms of transport and rail events and policy development, including the publication of the Railways Bill. Our work continues to ensure community rail is understood, respected, supported and embedded in the new rail landscape.

We are currently refining our policy asks in light of the provisions within the Bill: we will of course keep you abreast of this. Following the Bill’s introduction to Parliament, the Transport Select Committee is running an inquiry to look at the Bill’s likely impact on passengers, access and devolution. We will share our response in the next edition.

Continuing our important work on engaging mayoral combined authorities, we will be delivering a webinar focused on devolution and the opportunities it presents for community rail. The session, online via Teams on Thursday 11 December, 9.30-11am, will explore how community rail can engage with regional leaders, influence transport planning, and ensure community voices are heard in shaping rail and integrated mobility to meet local needs.

We have secured an excellent line-up of speakers: Monta Drozdova, Urban Transport Group; Tom Painter, West Midlands Rail Executive and Transport for the West Midlands; and Dawn Badminton Capps, North East Combined Authority. The webinar is open to Community Rail Network members only. Book your place here.

Following this initial webinar, we will explore the potential for a regional programme of devolution-focused sessions to ensure members are informed on this critical topic and able to seize emergent opportunities.

Best wishes,
Jeremy and Jools

Placemaking report

We published our latest report, ‘Community rail: placemaking and local identity’, with support from Rail Delivery Group (RDG). It highlights how community rail’s local knowledge and relationships with other community groups and partners is crucial in enabling rail to enrich lives and strengthen communities. It was launched at RDG’s Stations Summit in Swindon, where we spoke on the ‘Safer Stations’ panel. Read the report via our press release here.

Travelling with Confidence

We’re pleased to welcome Ellen Cameron to the team, who takes over from Sally Whitehead as programme coordinator for our Travelling with Confidence programme, funded by Motability Foundation. We’re sure you’ll join us in wishing Ellen a warm welcome.  

Online training and development sessions

Project outcomes and planning – this session aimed at CRP chairs and officers will focus on identifying project outcomes, and tools and techniques for achieving them and evidencing success. We’re offering two alternative times: 2-4.30pm on Thursday 27 November and 6.30-8.45pm on Monday 1 December. The booking link has been emailed to CRP chairs and officers.

Networking for community rail officers – wind down for the year in good company on Wednesday 17 December, 2-4pm. CRP officers can share highlights from the year, discuss plans and ask questions of peers. There may also be a short festive quiz! Book your place.

Tourism and leisure

Look out for our Scenic Rail Winter campaign, 1-14 December, featuring seasonal photography, plus ideas for short walks, indoor attractions and days out. Find out more and download the toolkit here.

Join our next Community Rail Tourism Network session on Wednesday 16 December, 10-11am, where members will share project highlights from the past year. Email Alice to attend.

Great Rail Tales

Jools had the pleasure of recording an episode for Railway 200’s Great Rail Tales podcast. She takes a look at the evolution of community rail, and how our members across Britain involve and empower local people, improve access to opportunity and benefit local places and our planet. Listen here.

Send your stories to our Comms team and see our guidance on submitting stories.

Your next bulletin is on 10 December. Keep up-to-date in between on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Bluesky and X.

Essex & South Suffolk CRP supported a group of 16 Asylum seekers from Clacton, most of whom have a physical disability, to take part in an English lesson on a train to Colchester. On the trip, funded by Greater Anglia, the group were able to talk with staff at the station and on board the trains, and 3 ESOL teachers supported them to learn how to purchase tickets and ask for platform information or assistance confidently in English.

The information gathered on this journey will be taken to graphic design students at Colchester Institute, who will produce an infographic sheet for passengers whose first language is not English. It will also be provided to station staff to assist them in communicating with all passengers, further supporting rail to be an inclusive and accessible means of travel.
Over a week in September, Hereward CRP worked with 20Twenty Productions to engage 180 pupils across three primary schools in Manea, March and Whittlesea. Through a series of interactive workshops, the pupils explored the heritage of the local rail network and how train travel has evolved over the last 200 years. The pupils were taught how to use the design software Pro-Create and were tasked with creating their own vibrant rail-themed designs, which have since been collated onto large display boards. There is now a total of 16 boards on display at the three stations, and each school has printed poster versions to display themselves.