Above: Greater Anglia train on Chappel viaduct. Credit: Greater Anglia Day trippers to East Anglia will be encouraged to leave the car at home and use the train for their journeys at an event in London next week. The region’s Essex & South Suffolk, East Suffolk Lines, Bittern Line, Wherry Lines and New River Line Community Rail Partnerships are joining forces on 23 May for a vibrant promotional display at London Liverpool Street Station, showcasing Greater Anglia’s scenic rail lines for green leisure trips. It’s one of many activities taking place 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. Alan Neville, Greater Anglia’s Customer and Community Engagement Manager, said, “It’s so easy to get to the stunning cities, towns and coastlines in East Anglia by train and helps the planet too by reducing CO2 emissions by as much as 70% compared to the car. “We have a range of great value fares available to make a day out in East Anglia by rail the best choice for a great day out and are grateful to our community rail partnerships for helping to raise awareness with this event.” Community Rail Week, organised by Community Rail Network and sponsored by the Rail Delivery Group, shines a light on the year-round work of Britain’s 76 community rail partnerships, 140 station groups and 10,000 volunteers who are involved in community rail activities across the country. 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, including many across the East of England, are mobilising en masse, engaging local people and partners to raise awareness about rail travel, and get people enthused about its many benefits.” She 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.”
