The short list for the 2012 Civil Service Diversity & Equality Awards were announced at the end of last week and the Community Rail & Ambassador Project Teams, Department for Transport was in the short list in the ‘Understanding and Engaging with Communities Award’ category.

The Department for Transport’s (DfT) Community Rail Development Strategy is aimed at giving new life to our rural railways and seeks to make it easier for the rail industry and local communities to do more to ensure the long term health of their services. 

Some of the Strategy’s key aims include increasing ridership, social and economic regeneration and greater involvement of the local community.  The Ambassador project is an innovative travel awareness solution which meets these key aims and could potentially be used nationally.   

Northern Rail in partnership with DfT, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and the East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership developed a scheme working with and supporting socially excluded and BME communities at four different locations. Though the railway is at the doorstep of many of these communities it is under utilised by many of them.  To engage with these communities and better understand and then overcome barriers to local rail travel, Northern Rail recruited “ambassadors” from the actual communities. 

Through this engagement process it was hoped to change attitudes to local rail travel which would attract new customers to rail thus making it more financially sustainable whilst helping to improve the quality of life of these communities.

The East Lancashire CRP is once again running its popular music & ale train on Friday 24th August 2012, the opening evening of the Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival held in Colne.

The Real ale is once again being provided by Moorhouses Brewery in Burnley and the music on the train will be provided by Lil’ Ian Goodsman an acoustic blues, roots and ragtime performer in the style of Robert Johnson. 

The music train starts departs Preston at 18.24 and calls at the following stations:

Lostock Hall (18.30
Bamber Bridge (18.33)
Pleasington (18.41) (by request)
Cherry Tree (18.44)
Mill Hill (18.46)
Blackburn (18.53)
Rishton (18.58)
Church & Oswaldtwistle (19.01)
Accrington (19.04)
Huncoat (19.08) (by request)
Hapton (19.11) (by request)
Rose Grove (19.14)
Burnley Barracks (19.17) (by request)
Burnley Central (19.20)
Brierfield (19.24)
Nelson (19.27)

and arriving into Colne at 19.37.

Northern Rail are once again running later trains from Colne over the August bank holiday weekend to allow festival goers to stay later at the festival.

Friday 24^th August 2012

Colne dep 23.50 calling at Nelson, Burnley Central, Accrington, Blackburn & Preston (this is a now a regular Fridays only timetabled train and stopping pattern is fixed)

 Saturday 25^th August 2012

Colne dep 23.40 calling at Nelson, Brierfield, Burnley Central, Burnley Barracks (request), Rose Grove, Hapton (request), Huncoat (request), Accrington, Church & Oswaldtwistle, Rishton & Blackburn. (Unfortunately for operational reasons this train cannot stop at any stations beyond Blackburn)

Sunday 26^th August 2012

Colne dep 23.45 calling at Nelson, Brierfield, Burnley Central, Burnley Barracks (request), Rose Grove, Hapton (request), Huncoat (request), Accrington, Church & Oswaldtwistle, Rishton & Blackburn. (Unfortunately for operational reasons this train cannot stop at any stations beyond Blackburn)

The 2012 British Open Golf Championship is being held at the Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club starting on Sunday 15th July 2012. Access to the course by rail is through Ansdell & Fairhaven station and Northern Rail are running a special shuttle service between Preston and Ansdell & Fairhaven starting on Wednesday 18th July (last practice day) and through until Sunday 22nd July (final match day). The service will comprise of a half hourly shuttle between the two stations and trains will terminate at Ansdell.

The normal Colne to Blackpool South will terminate and start at Preston. For customers travelling to St. Annes-on-the-Sea, Squires Gate and Blackpool South, a separate train service will run from Preston to Kirkham & Wesham which will connect with the replacement buses, which will run between Blackpool South and Kirkham & Wesham, but will not call at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Customers for the Pleasure Beach are being advised to travel via Blackpool North where a strengthened bus service will be operating between Blackpool North station and the Pleasure Beach.

Click on the links below to see the timetables for the various services and notices.

Timetables

• Preston to Ansdell & Fairhaven shuttle service - timetable
• Preston to Blackpool South - replacement buses timetable
• Mini timetable – available at Preston and Ansdell & Fairhaven

Station notices

• Blackpool Pleasure Beach
• Colne to Blackpool South

Lancashire County Council’s Rail Development Team were winners in Monday’s PRIDE Awards (Personal Responsibilty In Delevering Excellence) held in the main Council Chamber. The team won in the Economic Development category for Accrington Eco Station.

Northern Rail’s Community Ambassadors Scheme picked up gold at the Railway Industry Innovation Awards. The cross community initiative won the highest accolade for ‘Small Scale Project’ at the awards event held in the London Paddington Hotel on Friday 22 June 2012.

The South Fylde Line CRP and the Clitheroe Line CRP have both been successful in bids for funding from the Designated Lines Community Rail Development Fund (CRDF in short).

The SFLCRP bid entitled ‘Walking with the Community‘ is to support a new self-guide walks project based on Lytham and St. Annes stations. The funding will provided design and printing of the walks cards and also a leaflet and poster to promote the walks at the stations and throughout the area.

The CLCRP bid was to support a Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council  project called ‘The People and Planet Film Festival 2013′ which is to be based in Darwen in February of 2013.

The Designated Lines Community Rail Development Fund is sponsored by the Department of Transport, Network Rail and the Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP) and helps provide funding for development of community rail lines that have been designated as part of the Government’s Community Rail Strategy.  

News just in from Jim Trotman, CRP Officer for the Furness Line (Carnforth to Barrow), that the Department for Transport has confirmed that Service Designation has been approved for the line.  Although not in the original list of possible lines for designation the DfT has obviously seen the line’s potential to be a successful community rail line!

The Department for Transport has announced that it has granted a continuation of it’s Northern Franchise. This means that Northern will continue to operate  local and regional services until 1st April 2014.

Click HERE to see the full News Release.