A big thank you to everyone who participated in Community Rail Network’s membership survey for 2022. We received responses from community rail partnerships and station/community groups spanning Britain, and as ever, have carefully analysed the results to help inform our planning for the next year and beyond.

The survey provides us with some member satisfaction measures which helps us to assess and reflect on what we are doing well and what we need to improve. In addition, it allows us to create a more detailed picture of your future priorities and challenges, which ensures our work continues to respond to your needs and provides support for the growing community rail movement.

Headline figures for 2022:

• 87% of respondents said they received value for money from their membership, up from 71% last year;

• 74% of respondents had received direct support from us over the past year, up from 71% last year. The most common benefit was members feeling part of the wider community rail movement, and being able to share experience/access examples of good practice;

• 86% of respondents attended some form of event/training course/webinar, up from 79% last year;

• 90% say we communicate well (very or reasonably) with members, up from 88% last year;

• The top three priority public policy areas where members were keen for community rail to share insights were: integrated transport and active/healthy travel; green/sustainable travel, decarbonisation, and the climate crisis; and inclusive and accessible travel;

• The top priorities for members across the coming year are:

CRPs: developing stronger links with and engaging your community (1); tourism and leisure promotions (2); promoting/raising awareness about rail/sustainable travel (3)

Station/community station/other groups: community gardening/food growing/biodiversity/ environmental projects (1); recruiting volunteers/developing volunteer activity (2); developing stronger links with and engaging your community (3)

• 77% of respondents said current levels of motivation/morale were good (very or reasonably). More than nine in ten station/community station/other groups (94%) said they were planning to maintain or increase activity levels over the coming year;

• Members’ preferred method of feeding in information on specific topics/issues was via online surveys;

• 49% of community rail partnership respondents said they were happy or satisfied with the level of updates on rail transformation, with 47% saying they would appreciate more regular/better information/updates.

The results of the 2022 membership survey will help to inform Community Rail Network’s planning processes over the coming months, and will be fed back to key partners, including the Department for Transport, Welsh Government, and Transport Scotland.

The next survey is due to take place in September 2023, however, we really value your input and suggestions, and would encourage you to feed in comments and ideas at any time through your regular Community Rail Network contact(s), on social media, or via e-mail to info@communityrail.org.uk.       

A big thank you again from all the Community Rail Network team.