TT Summer 10 - Association of Community Rail Partnerships - UK ...

Hello and WelcomeFrom the ChairOn this occasion I am having to introduce TrainTimes to you in an online rather than printedformat. Because the printed magazine was largelyfunded by grant from the Department for Transportwe have been asked to suspend publication for atime as part of the government’s general moratoriumon publicity and publications.Yes that’s quite a blow. It’s our communityrail shop window - yours and ours. It’s our bigdrum for banging the community rail message,telling both industry and the wider world of yourachievements whilst spreading examples of bestpractice. But be assured we are investigating waysof overcoming this, and thus the current issue -which was already largely prepared – is being madeavailable online as an interim measure.We are looking at ways of reducing the costs ofpublication, we are looking to see if we can findfurther sponsorship, we are looking at all and anypossible ways of keeping Train Times going in aprinted format.Meanwhile it is very much business as usual atACoRP. The two grant schemes are thriving; we arepreparing for the Awards in September with manyentries received; we have recently held members’seminars and more are planned: and Train on Linewill still come to you monthly.We have been working on a forward strategyfor ACoRP, and thank you to all those who havecontributed to this at our seminars. Our coreobjective remains supporting members in thedevelopment of local rail services and facilities. Toachieve this we will work with government andindustry to deliver the objectives of the CommunityRail Development Strategy, and report back widelyon the successes.We will promote and communicate communityrail achievement, growth in passenger numbers,efficient use of resources, and the communitybenefits delivered (particularly those that help tomeet Local Authority obligations and targets).We will demonstrate the added value andValue for Money that Community Rail Partnershipsbring to the table. And there is great value! You’veseen these figures before from our two reports onthe Value of Community Rail Partnerships and theValue of Volunteering. But they are important toremember and worth repeating on every possibleoccasion. CRP projects bring an average costbenefit ratio of 4.6 to 1; and 4000 community railvolunteers bring £27 million in added value a year.Those are impressive achievements of which membersof community rail can and should be proud.A final word - we need to refresh the communityrail message and assert its benefits widely,especially to the new generation of politicians andadvisers now in place following the general and localelections. Much achieved, much still to be done.Peter Roberts MBEACoRP ChairmanTo all our Community RailColleaguesAs we suspected, times are hard and will no doubtbe getting harder, although we need to await theoutcome of this autumn’s Comprehensive SpendingReview to get a clear idea of where we stand. Nonetheless,I remain optimistic about the future forcommunity rail as long as we play our cards right.My experience to date confirms the coalitiongovernment’s wish to promote the concept of theBig Society and this is something that CommunityRail Partnerships can deliver in spades. We’vealready got the ACoRP report on The Value ofCommunity Rail Volunteering which underlinesthe very high added value we can bring not only tothe rail industry but to the communities we workin. In this respect, we already tick a lot of boxes solet’s get out there and remind everyone about it!Meanwhile, ACoRP will continue to argueyour case at a strategic level and to emphasise this,you’ll find our latest press release on page 7.Community rail works so stick with it, beinnovative and I’m sure we can see this through!Neil BuxtonGeneral ManagerIn this issue:Regional Round-Up ............................................................. 3ACoRP Backs ‘Big Society’ (Press Release) ................... 7The Case for CR - a manifesto ........................................... 8Adoption Page ..................................................................... 9Arrivals & Departures ...................................................... 10Community Rail Awards .................................................. 112