Engaging the community

We support volunteer groups that transform local stations, work towards improvements to services, and promote the railway in their local area.

We run regular line forum meetings on seven of the branch lines, where the railway, local councils, rail users’ groups and many others come together to discuss issues and plan projects.

More than a thousand children have benefited from our free taster school trips since 2012, thanks to the generous support of Great Western Railway (GWR). As well as encouraging pupils to become ‘rail ambassadors’ and get their families to try the train, we also involve them in creative projects such as our Carbon Reduction Challenge.

We help students to give something back to the community through volunteer gardening projects at stations and collaborations like our Time Travelling Train project and our student masterclasses that generate new ideas for the rail industry.

We team up with restaurants, pubs, surf shops, accommodation providers and other local businesses on a range of promotions that benefit all involved.

We work with local organisations ranging from tourist information centres to non-profit organisations such as the Turning Tides project, based at Crediton station.