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Community Rail News – 29 October 2025

Hello everyone. We hope, as always, that this bulletin finds you well.

Our grassroots movement continues to be in the midst of major change. It’s critical, therefore, that we’re clear and confident about the unique value community rail delivers, while building resilience across our membership, and seizing emergent opportunities to extend our reach and impact.

To help us cement community rail’s place and be confident about where we’re heading long-term, we have embarked on a major strategic review. We’re asking challenging questions of ourselves, drawing on input from members and partners, staff and board, to chart a clear, ambitious course for the years ahead.

This review, as well as our annual planning, will draw heavily on the results of this year’s members’ survey. A big thank you to everyone who responded. We have already analysed the headlines, which you can explore here.

There’s also still time to register for our AGM, which is online on Wednesday 5 November, 2-3.30pm. We warmly encourage members to join us to discuss our achievements over the past year and plans for the future. Book your place.

Best wishes,
Jeremy and Jools

Transport Select Committee

We submitted evidence to the Transport Select Committee’s ‘Joined-up journeys: achieving and measuring transport integration’ – read here. We also submitted a joint response with our Sustainable Transport Alliance partners, available here.

Railway Industry Association – ‘Station Investment Zones’

We were pleased to attend the launch of RIA’s ‘Station Investment Zones’ report in Parliament last week. Empowering communities is essential to shaping station development, and it’s encouraging to see this recognised in RIA’s report. Read here.

Education Network

The next Community Rail Education Network session will be held on Wednesday 19 November, 10-11am. Platform Rail will be showcasing the work they do. Contact Karen if you’d like to attend, and access the notes, resources and recordings from previous meetings on the Education Network website. 

Tourism and leisure campaigns

Thank you to all members who shared their walking, wheeling and cycling initiatives as part of our Tracks and Trails campaign. Explore the content here. Details of our next campaign, Scenic Rail Winter, to run 1–14 December, will be in the next bulletin.

Railway 200 content callout

We’re asking members to submit content for our final Railway 200 promotions. If you have photos and videos of your 2025 activities and of people waving at stations and on trains, plus statistics showing your impact, we’d love to receive and share these. Send to our comms & policy team by end of Friday 31 October.

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

Your next bulletin is on 12 November. Keep up-to-date in between on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Bluesky and X.

Highland Main Line CRP were proud to receive a special accolade on 16 October at Boat of Garten Station. As part of the national Railway 200 celebrations, the Highland Main Line was awarded a prestigious Red Wheel, created by the National Transport Trust to recognise the most significant sites of historical importance to transport heritage in the UK. The plaque, soon to be installed at Aviemore Station, recognises the entire Highland Main Line as a site of exceptional transport heritage, having stimulated tourism and economic development since its opening in 1863.
Goxhill Station adopters have been hard at work this autumn, continuing their mission to make the station a welcoming space for both passengers and wildlife. Barton Cleethorpes CRP has supported the volunteers to transform a strip of land at the entrance to Platform 2. After many hours of effort, the area has been cleared of rubble and stubborn weeds, refreshed with new planters and decorative slate shingle. Next on the adopters’ list is to install bug houses on the platform, establishing Goxhill Station as a green space where pollinators and other wildlife is supported to thrive.