Blackpool rail volunteers hold events to celebrate national …
Volunteers[1] at St Anne’s Station near Blackpool[2] will celebrate the station’s 150th birthday during national Community Rail Week.
As part of a series of events taking place across the country, The South Fylde Line Community Rail Partnership will mark the milestone by burying a time capsule at the station and launching a ‘Shifting Sands’ art exhibition.
It is one of many activities taking place across Britain[3] during Community Rail Week, 22 to 28 May, including youth engagement initiatives, projects celebrating local history, culture, and the arts, and campaigns promoting scenic and sustainable leisure travel, all aiming to connect and empower communities, break down travel barriers, and encourage a greener, healthier transport future.
Community Rail Week, organised by Community Rail Network and sponsored by Rail Delivery Group, shines a light on the year-round work of Britain’s 76 community rail partnerships, which cover 34% of Britain’s railway network, and 1,200 station friends groups made up of more than 10,000 volunteers, who tend to about half (47%) of Britain’s 2,570 stations.
Community rail aims to improve travel confidence, increase access to opportunity, tackle social isolation, give communities a voice, and put railways and stations at the heart of community life, while supporting a shift to sustainable, more social forms of travel, including rail.
Jools Townsend, chief executive of Community Rail Network, said: “Community rail partnerships and thousands of ‘station friends’ volunteers the length and breadth of Britain, are mobilising en masse, engaging local people and partners to raise awareness about rail travel, and get people enthused about its many benefits.”
Ms Townsend added: “Community Rail Week is all about connecting communities and bringing people together, while supporting and enabling more people to travel sustainably by train and access the opportunities they want. Community rail has an inspiring track record of doing just that: promoting travel confidence and broadening mobility horizons, sometimes with life-changing effects, while giving communities a voice on transport, and putting railways and stations at the heart of community life.”
Nationwide events for the week include: the national launch at Tolworth Station in London to highlight the work of Britain’s newest community rail partnership, Community Train CRP; the Rail Minister Huw Merriman MP visiting a community rail promotional display at London Waterloo Station; an interactive day of STEM activities for young people at Ribblehead Viaduct on the Settle-to-Carlisle Line; a Scottish parliamentary reception at Holyrood; a nationwide community rail showcase of sustainable, exciting tourism and leisure opportunities by rail; and the finals of the World Cup of Stations.