The 22nd Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival is being held in Colne THIS weekend. The festival kicks off with a music train leaving Preston at 18.24 and arriving in Colne at 19.40 just as the festival starts in earnest. 

Tom Attah, ‘The Living Bluesman’ is performing on the train for the second year running and the East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership will be tempting passengers with ’Eco Ale’ a real ale from local brewers Moorhouses in Burnley. The ale will be on sale on the train for £1 a glass (1/2 pint).

Come along and enjoy the music and some real ale! Full details of the Festival can be found by visiting www.bluesfestival.co.uk.

As well as the music train the CRP, in partnership with Northern Rail, are running some later trains back to Blackburn over the weekend. On Friday 26th the train leaves Colne at 00.15 (Sat am), on Saturday 27th the train leaves at 23.40 and on Sunday 28th the train leaves at 23.45. The three late trains all call at all stations from Colne to Blackburn.

Details of other trains to and from Colne over the bank holiday weekend can be found by visiting www.northernrail.org or www.nationalrail.co.uk .

The 2011 Lancashire Community Rail Partnerships Community Rail exhibition has been officially opened by a small group of children from Whalley Primary School. The exhibition is the fifth annual Clitheroe Line & East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership celebration of the work we carry out with children from local schools.

This year’s exhibition has two main displays, the first is the story behind Whalley Primary School’s project to create an art work for the fence at Whalley station and also to produce a self guided walk around the village to see the places of importance shown in the art work. The second is to show off work carried out by children who have visited the new Eco Station at Accrington. This is based in sustainability and particularly in recycling and the use of recycled materials.

The exhibition is in the Platform Gallery in Clitheroe and can be seen Tuesday to Saturday between 10.00 & 16.30 for the next two weeks starting tomorrow 20.08.11.

West Lancashire Borough Council has been involved in a successful bid for funding under the Government’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF.)

The £1.55m funding, which will cover areas in both Sefton and West Lancashire, aims to support and promote the tourism industry in both boroughs. The Sefton West Lancashire Visitor Economy Project covers the Sefton coast from Waterloo to Southport and inland to incorporate northern and western parts of West Lancashire including Ormskirk, Burscough, Tarleton, Hesketh Bank, Banks and Rufford.

Click HERE to see the full press release on the WLBC website.

The short list for the 2011 National Community Rail Awards, to be held in Sheffield in September, has been published. The Lancashire Community Rail Partnerships have had three nominations short listed:

• Involving Young People – Greening the East Lancashire Line DVD and online teacher’s pack
• Station Development - Accrington Eco Station
• Outstanding Volunteer Contribution - Marjorie Birch

Two other short listed nominations are of interest to us locally:

• Outstanding Railway Staff Contribution  – Wayne Smith, Station Manager Fylde & Lancashire
• Passengers Matter - Northern Community Ambassadors Scheme

Congratulations to all those shortlisted – to see the full list visit www.acorp.uk.com  or click HERE.

The work on Blackburn station’s platform 4 is becoming more obvious now and the contractors are confident that the job will be completed on time. Below are some of the key dates for the project.

Platform 4 canopy

Foundations - 05.08.11 to 15.08.11
Ground beams - 05.08.11 to 15.08.11
Steelwork - 16.08.11 to 25.08.11
Cladding & glazing – 26.08.11 to 29.09.11

Lift

Subway entrance - 25.07.11 to 08.08.11
Combined motor room
& lift building - 28.07.11 to 15.08.11
M & E fit out - 18.08.11 to 25.09.11

Northern Rail in partnership with Visit Blackpool have produced a new brochure – Destination Blackpool which contains details of events and money saving coupons at a number of attractions in Blackpool.

Leaflets are being distributed to staffed stations along with posters – and coupons can be downloaded off the Northern Rail website at www.northernrail.org as well.

To download a copy of the brochure click the image below:

  

Days Out in Borderlands is a brand new brochure that has been produced by Mainline Buses (Transdev in the Burnley area) offering the reader some great days out and walks in and around the borders between Lancashire & Yorkshire.

Although the brochure is pitched at bus travel, some of the destinations can also be accessed by train using an East Lancashire Day Ranger ticket, valid on both bus and train.

To download a copy of ‘Days Out in Borderlands’ click HERE and for full details of the East Lancashire Day Ranger click HERE.

Anyone who has taken any photographs on one of the days out in the brochure and would like to see them on the website, send them to us on info@communityraillancashire.co.uk and we will consider them for inclusion in a gallery.

No, Accrington Stanley have not yet reached the top of League Two – they managed fifth place last year in their best ever season.

With another Awards win last night Accrington Eco Station is proving difficult to beat – a tally of 3 wins out of 5 (and 2 highly commended in the others to boot) the station continues to wow the judges.

In a glittering showbiz style event at the Natural History Museum last night Accrington Eco Station won in the Environmental Sustainability category at the 2011 Network Rail Partnership Awards.

A audience of 590 watched Simon Clarke, Community Rail Development Officer, and Gary Seed, from SBS Architects, accept the award on behalf of Lancashire County Council.

Accrington railway station today saw a service to dedicate a plaque in the memory of the Accrington Pals. Officially known as the 11th Battalion East Lancashire Regiment, the Accrington Pals were a battalion raised in the first months of the First World War in response to Kitchener’s call for a volunteer army. Groups of friends from all walks of life in Accrington and its neighbouring towns enlisted together to form a battalion with a distinctively local identity. In its first major action, the battalion suffered devastating losses in the attack on Serre on 1st July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme. The losses were hard to bear in a community where nearly everyone had a relative or friend who had been killed or wounded. Although the battalion was to fight again, its Pals character had been irretrievably lost.

The ceremony to unveil the plaque was held in the Booking Hall at Accrington station and following an opening speech by the Mayor of Hyndburn, and prayers of dedication the plaque was unveiled by a piper, watched by representatives of the regiment and relatives of those lost in the devastating first day of action.

The inscription on the plaque reads as follows:

In honour of those men and women of Accrington who served on the railways, and answered their country’s call in time of need in units like the 11th battalion East Lancashire Regiment – the ‘Accrington Pals’.

An annual memorial service will be held at the station on the first Sunday of  November each year.

On Friday 24^th June 2011 Class 6 from Daisyfield Primary School were at Blackburn station to witness the unveiling of a piece of artwork done by the class as part of the programme of works taking place on platform 4 at the station.

The artwork was requested by AMCO the contractors for the works, as part of their commitment to the Considerate Contractors Scheme. The artwork was originally designed to be displayed at the bottom of the slope to platform 4 but eventually it was agreed that it could become a permanent display feature for the waiting room on platforms 1 & 2.

Brian Haworth, Community Rail Development Officer and Marjorie Birch, Vice Chair of the Clitheroe Line & East Lancashire CRPs (CL/ELCRP) went into Daisyfield to work with Class teacher, Shabnum Talib and teaching assistant Zainab Dudha to help the children design and complete the piece of art.

On the day a host of invited guests including Jack Straw, former justice secretary and MP for Blackburn, James Syson, Transport Planner with Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and Chair of the joint CRPs, Kathryn O’Brien, Client & Stakeholder Manager West, Northern Rail and Alan Howarth, Project Manager, Network Rail gathered at the station to congratulate the children on their work.

After a welcome and other speeches Jack Straw unveiled the colourful artwork and stayed on to chat to the children and pose for photographs. The artwork made entirely from recycled materials can be seen by anyone visiting the platform 1 & 2 waiting room on Blackburn station.

Thanks must also be given to Simon Godfrey, Customer Communications Manager with Northern Rail for his help in arranging the installation of the artwork in the waiting room.

Full details of the works to Platform 4 at Blackburn can be seen by clicking HERE.