Community Rail Awards 2025 now open for Entries! Click here to read more.

Community Rail News – 7 January 2026

Hello everyone, Happy New Year! We hope you all enjoyed a restful and joyful festive season.

As we step into 2026, it promises to be a busy and exciting year for community rail. Rail reform remains high on the agenda, and we are committed to ensuring that the voice of community rail is heard loud and clear. Just before Christmas, we submitted some core recommendations to the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Department for Transport Operator (DfTO) on how community rail is empowered into the future, and we will be discussing these at the forthcoming National Community Rail Steering Group later this month. We welcome your feedback on the document – please get in touch with Rob.

We also have some team news to share. Sarah Chilton, our director of communications and policy, will be moving on, six years after joining us, to return to politics to work for the MP for Huddersfield. Sarah will finish with us in early February. We’re also sad to say farewell to training and development coordinator Naomi Lilley, and Ali Miller, inclusion and engagement manager for the On Track programme, who finished with us in December. Sarah, Naomi and Ali have made significant contributions to our work and will be greatly missed. Recruitment is underway for these roles (the director role remains open, here).

Finally, we are delighted to offer our congratulations to Tim Sparrow, volunteer director with Southeast Communities Rail Partnership, who has been awarded an MBE for services to community rail in the New Year’s Honours List. This is an incredible achievement and richly deserved recognition of his dedication and impact. Listen to Tim’s interview on BBC Radio Sussex here (starting at 3:15:54).

Best wishes,
Jeremy and Jools

Community Rail Awards

In December we announced the shortlisted entries for the 2026 Community Rail Awards. Book your place for the presentation evening on Thursday 19 March in Derby, explore the exciting fringe activities, and choose the photo that best showcases ‘the essence of community rail’ in our photo competition.

Gender-based barriers to travel – online session

Join our online session on Thursday 22 January, 10-11am, where officers from Heart of England CRP, Southeast Communities Rail Partnership and Oxfordshire CRP will be sharing insights from their initiatives for White Ribbon Day and addressing gender-based travel barriers. Session details can be found here.

Education Network

The next Community Rail Education Network session is on Wednesday 21 January, 10-11am. The focus is on how community rail partnerships and station groups can engage with Girl Guide groups. Contact Karen to attend. Access resources and recordings from past meetings here.

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

Your next bulletin is on 21 January. Keep up-to-date in between on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Bluesky and X.

The Friends of Crewkerne Station are pleased to have supported the restoration of historic areas at their Grade II-listed station. The volunteers submitted a grant request to South Western Railway, who along with Railway Heritage Trust and Avon Consulting, undertook the work to restore the original window frames in the old porter’s room, improving the appearance of the windows on the platform side, as well as letting more light into the space, opening it up for future community use.
Three new pieces of artwork have been installed at Driffield Station following a collaboration between Driffield in Bloom and Yorkshire Coast CRP. Volunteer Kath Roe spearheaded the project, engaging Year 12 pupils from Driffield School to create vibrant pieces that showcased the town, welcomed visitors and brightened up the space near the entrance/exit on Platform 1.

Rachel Osborne, Yorkshire Coast CRP officer, said: “We were pleased to be able to work with Driffield in Bloom on this project and love it when our station adoption groups involve local schools. This has been a real community project that has much improved the station.”
Barton Cleethorpes CRP is proud to announce the winners of its 2025 Photography Competition, celebrating all things community rail, Railway 200 and the Barton Line. After careful review by a panel including representatives from the CRP, East Midlands Railway, Community Rail Network and Humber & Wolds Rural Action, the overall winner was station adopter Ron Sparkes, with ‘Poppies at Thornton Abbey’. Ron received a gift voucher, and his photo will be included in a calendar to showcase the Barton Line.

Dawn Branton, CRP officer, said: “We were overwhelmed by the entries received in this competition. All were from amateur photographers, and the winners demonstrated remarkable creativity and skill; we’re thrilled to celebrate their achievements.”