Double national awards success

The Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership was awarded two first places at the national Community Rail Awards held in Derby on Thursday 5th October 2017.

The Carbon Reduction Challenge was recognised in the Involving Children and Young People category and the Seize The Sunday campaign on the Avocet Line won the Marketing award.

Carbon Reduction Challenge

WINNER – Best project involving children and young people

This inter-schools competition encouraged local schools to swap car journeys for train journeys to reduce their carbon footprint. Inspired by a taster trip on the train and an animated video featuring project mascot Coco the cat, pupils became rail ambassadors – encouraging their family, friends and teachers to use their local branch line. The schools also produced projects ranging from books to videoed debates.

The project spanned eight schools and engaged more than 220 children.
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Seize The Sunday

WINNER – Best marketing and communications campaign

The Seize The Sunday campaign on the Avocet Line (Exeter-Exmouth) helped to make a major success of the long-awaited trial of year-round half-hourly Sunday services. The project began by commissioning a behaviour change agency to run focus groups and interviews to understand local audiences and their attitudes to Sunday travel.

This informed an online and offline marketing campaign which included a website, targeted Facebook adverts, videos, press coverage, door-to-door leaflets and partnerships with businesses.

The campaign saw Sunday journey figures jump 22% compared with the same period the previous year (against a backdrop of a 12% increase in Sunday services).
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