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Annual Report 2013-14 from the Chair

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Annual Report 2013-14 from the Chair Association of Community Rail Partnerships Annual Report 2013-14 From The Chair We are approaching nearly two years in our new office the opportunity of highlighting the achievements of rail in the water tower at Huddersfield and the conversion partnerships and the social and economic values of com- and renovation work has both attracted great interest munity rail achievements. and won awards. It has provided a better working envi- During the year we held several events and seminars ronment for staff colleagues and is in a more convenient for our members, rail partnerships and station friends, location for visitors. whilst maintaining dialogue with the rail industry and Looking forward there are changes developing in com- the three national governments. The ACoRP Board met munity rail with a willingness to try new approaches on on four occasions and the Finance & General Purposes several fronts. This is particularly evident in the ongo- Committee met on four further occasions. Members of ing work on the Heart of Wales Line where additional the board give their time voluntarily to steer and guide services are being introduced allied to consultancy study. the organisation; as always our gratitude to them and to Support for community rail and partnerships is now our small but dedicated hard working staff team too included as an integral part of the refranchising proc- The past year has seen changes in staffing with the retire- ess, and bidders have to set out their stall in this respect ment of Philip Jenkinson and Susan Miles whilst this in their bids. Rail North has brought a new dynamic to AGM sees the retirement of three of our board members: established concepts of franchising too. Mike Bishop who led on relations with stations friends ACoRP itself is undertaking an organisational review to groups; Marjorie Birch who ably guided us on person- adapt our way of working to reflect change inherent in nel matters; and John Hummel who charted the way for new challenges and opportunities. One of those challeng- our move to the water tower and stands down through ill es will be to nurture new relationships with Network Rail health. All have contributed much to ACoRP in their sev- following the changes in their community rail represen- eral different ways and we thank them for what they have tation. The soon-to-be-published updated Values of Com- done over the years. You will all be missed. munity Rail and Volunteering report will afford members Peter Roberts MBE Honorary Chairman Cover photo: ACoRP on the Big Screen for Community Rail in the September 2014 City, Liverpool Street, May 2013 (Photo by Neil Buxton) John Ellis, chairman of the NHRA, watches as Jerry Swift of Network Rail unveils the plaque recording the Network Rail Partnership Award to the new ACoRP office in April (photo by Paul Bigland) Annual Report 2013-14 Introduction Designation is taken seriously and we hope that lines achieving that status will use it to their best advantage. In 2013-14 presented a subtle but definite sea-change in that respect, we were delighted to welcome the Manches- the perception of community rail. Peter Wilkinson, the ter – Buxton and Manchester – Glossop/Hadfield routes to DfT’s new Franchise Director, brought a new dynamism the designation family, making a total of 36 to date. and direction to the franchising process and ACoRP’s subsequent meetings with him suggested that he was Providing training for new project officers definitely not looking for ‘plain vanilla’ in the new North- ern and TPE franchises. Our work with Rail North ACoRP’s training days are aimed at introducing new leaves us feeling equally optimistic and this has all been community rail officers to the railway industry and the bolstered up by a successful (if stressful!) presentation to community rail world and frequency rather depends on the Transport Select Committee and a very supportive how many new CRPOs there are! Our last session was meeting with Transport Minister Baroness Kramer. held in May 2013 and we are encouraged by the many diverse backgrounds of the new officers who often teach The ScotRail franchise was the first indication of the new us as much as they learn from us! approach, with Transport Scotland putting in an exten- sive requirement to support – and fund – community Seminars and events to promote CR rail and station adoption. This resulted in a clamour of One of ACoRP’s aims, and a key aspiration of our main bidders around ACoRP’s door, a number of whom were funders, is to educate, advise and spread best practice and prepared to give us access to some quite sensitive in- to that end, we ran a number of events during the year, formation in order to develop their strategies. It left us including two members’ seminars, a station adopters’ thinking how much had changed since ACoRP started in seminar, a small stations conference, a marketing semi- 2000, when it was hard work just to get anyone to under- nar and a Northern CRPs meeting in Hull. stand the concept of community rail, let alone recognise it! As part of our three-year agreement with Scotland, we also ran a conference in Stirling which explored the pos- All this comes at price, however, and we suspect that, in sibilities for community rail in that nation. The success exchange, we’re now being asked to step up to the plate of the event was partly due to the courage of the five and deliver. This is an exciting opportunity and will no ScotRail bidders who all agreed to attend and make their doubt bring new responsibilities for CRPs and with it, pitch to the delegates. In retrospect, this was quite a risky an expanded role for ACoRP. Let’s review how we got strategy on our behalf but thanks to the willingness of there…… the bidders and the enthusiasm and co-operation of the Assisting with delivery of the Community Rail delegates, it was generally agreed that the day had been a Development Strategy great success and we have no doubt that it helped move the community rail cause on in Scotland. Many of you will have met with Brian Barnsley during the year as he and Kul do their annual review of designat- ed line plans. This is not meant to be difficult for you and we hope you find the process helpful. The information we glean from these reviews is fed back into the DfT’s Community Rail Steering Group, which meets quarterly to discuss and resolve issues and developments associat- ed with community rail and, in particular, the designated lines. The annual Designated Lines Seminar, held this year in Blackpool, also uses the information to help CRPs to address some of their more pressing issues. A particu- larly interesting venture for us this year was the ‘Abellio Challenge’ event, a kind of ‘Dragon’s Den’, which asked a number of CRPs to present new and innovative ideas to their peers and a panel of judges, the winner receiving a £1,000 prize to develop their project. ACoRP seminar in session, Blackpool (photo courtesy Abellio) Producing quality publications Operating small grants schemes With increasing costs on one hand and reducing budgets Part of the funding ACoRP receives from the govern- on the other, ACoRP had to take a long, hard look at its ments of England, Wales and Scotland includes an flagship publication Train Times. It was not only becom- element for a series of grant funds and these have been ing too expensive to produce but, we felt, was becoming very successful in pump-priming projects which would outdated and consequently, not delivering to our audi- otherwise fall by the wayside. They’re also structured to ence. We reluctantly decided to cease publication and draw in match-funding, so everyone gets involved. focus on a new and improved Train on Line, which would There are two funds in England, the Small Grant Fund be more up-to-date, more flexible and easier to pro- (ESGF) and the Designated Community Rail Develop- duce. We were rapidly proved right, with monthly issues ment Fund (DCRDF), while Wales and Scotland have including up-to-the minute information and often going their own Small Grant Funds to support CRPs in those out at 16 pages. As this is being written, our analytics nations (WSGF and SSGF respectively). Because com- software suggests that almost 4,000 readers are down- munity rail is still in its infancy in Scotland, the SSGF has loading it, which suggests we’ve done the right thing! remained unspent to date, although with Transport Scot- Of course, Train on Line is not only a method of dissemi- land’s approval, ACoRP is carrying forward the amounts nating information across the membership but also a tool and, as new CRPs come about, we expect there to be an we can use to influence decision-makers. In that respect, increasing call on the fund during 2014-15. it’s only as good as the information our members send us, More information on the projects that have been support- so please keep sending it in – we’d rather have too much ed can be found at the end of this report (see Appendices). than too little! Support new and existing CRPs Thanks must also go to Abellio for helping to provide ACoRP with a series of maps outlining CRPs both lo- We’re always pleased to welcome new partnerships into cally and across the UK. These are available from our the fold and 2013-14 saw five new CRPs arrive.
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