Two projects recognised at Community Rail Awards

We were pleased to pick up 3rd place in two categories at last week’s Community Rail Awards ceremony, held at Newcastle’s Civic Centre.

Tourism and Leisure award – 3rd place
Rail Ale Trails

Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership and Blackmore Vale Line Community Rail Partnership teamed up for a revitalised promotion of real ale pubs along community rail lines. They created a new Rail Ale Trail between Salisbury and Exeter with SWR, inviting visitors from near and far to visit pubs along the line, collect stamps and win a T-shirt. The new trail expanded DCRP’s family of existing Rail Ale Trails on the GWR network. These had been running for 20 years but uptake had dwindled. Tying in with the Salisbury-Exeter launch, DCRP re-launched the existing trails with a photoshoot, website revamp, posters and social media campaign. As a result, the numbers of people completing the trails tripled compared to the previous summer.

Pictured (left-right): DCRP’s Richard Burningham, Betsy Saunders and Mike Parker-Bray, with Paula Aldridge (South Western Railway) and Derek Beer (Blackmore Vale Line Community Rail Partnership). Photo: Paul Bigland / Community Rail Network.

Best Community Engagement award – 3rd place
Birds on the Branch Line

Using the theme of bird conservation, Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership and poet Sally Crabtree engaged vulnerable groups to give them increased skills and confidence to travel by train. The project included workshops ranging from music and poetry to making bird feeders and bird boxes. Follow-up train trips on the Looe Valley Line gave an opportunity to improve knowledge and confidence about travelling by train as well as an opportunity to share the outputs from the workshops with other groups and the public. Feedback from participants included: “This made me feel so calm– it took me away from all that I have been through.”