The Community Rail Awards give our members the chance to showcase and celebrate the incredible range of work they do and the difference they make. The 2024 presentation evening will take place on Monday 18 March at the stunning Swansea Arena, starting with a drinks reception at 17:00. Full event timings will be published in due course. We’re delighted to have the support of Great Western Railway and Transport for Wales as our joint headline sponsors for 2024, alongside platinum sponsor Angel Trains.

Early booking is advised, closing date for bookings is 16 February.

Download form to book your place/table

Key Dates

Entries now CLOSED!

Shortlist announcement – 13 December

Photo Competition – shortlisted images on Survey Monkey for the public to vote on – 13 December – 29 January

GALA EVENT – bookings NOW OPEN!

Gala Event bookings CLOSE – 16 February

Key Documents & Resources

Full entry booklet 

Make sure you have read and understand the category criteria and ‘Rules of Entry’ before submitting your entry.

Download the full entry booklet 

Attendance subsidy fund

We understand the financial difficulties that many of our members might face in attending the Awards so we will once again be offering subsidies to community rail shortlistees to help our members to attend the gala event in Swansea. The fund is limited and awarded to shortlisted entrants only, on a first come first served basis, and we will be accepting applications from 13 December when the form will be emailed out to all shortlistees.

It’s Your Station’ guidance’

It’s more important than ever that we celebrate the wonderful work undertaken by adoption and friends groups, demonstrating the value of community rail volunteers and the benefits they bring to the wider railway.

We’ve created our special ‘It’s Your Station’ toolkit to help you put together entries that really showcase your fantastic work. Use this alongside the Judging Assessment Criteria to make sure you focus your entry in the right way.

Download ‘It’s Your Station’ Entry Toolkit

Download Judging Assessment Criteria

Awards drop-in Advice sessions (18 Sept – 9 Oct)

If you need any advice with your entry, please join one of our scheduled online drop-in sessions. If you can’t make any of these, you can email Hazel and Hannah from our Awards support team via events@communityrail.org.uk

View advice sessions schedule and joining links

Webinar recording: ‘How to submit an outstanding Awards entry and showcase your work’

As well as meeting the entry criteria, it’s vital to demonstrate the positive impacts and added value of your work, showing how you help communities to thrive and ensure people get the most from their railways. Before preparing your submission, watch our recent webinar and find out from our Awards judges what makes a great entry stand out from the rest to get shortlisted.

View webinar