Great Western Coffee Shop

Congratulations are due to both Bobm & Transwilts CRP for walking off with four (I think, I lost count) RUG Awards at Railfuture's autumn confrence here in Bristol.

I'll let Graham & Bob fill you in with exactly what they've won....Well done from me!

Thanks, Chris ... I'll fill you in when I get home.  Currently on train ...  about to change to the Interurban  ;D ;D service at Chppenham (word I picked up from East Anglia folks!)

BobM got silver in the individual volunteer award - Congratulations, Bob.
   http://atrebatia.info/railfuture2015_7.pdf
I'm delighted at this award - Bob does so much both on the Coffee Shop and on the TransWilts.

Silver in best campaign - TransWilts line ^ to gain and retain an appropriate service
   http://atrebatia.info/railfuture2015_5.pdf
This one is a real team effort - I could come up with dozens and dozens of names and it so easy to overlook some, and about ten are people without whom we would not have got back to a much more appropriate service, not safeguarded it.  I've been fortunate to be the press and publicity mouthpiece and, frankly, have been over-exposed to an embarrassing extent - the actor who stands up and says the words's he's been given. Without a script, a director, someone to hire the theatre and sell the seats, someone to do the publicity ... it doesn't happen

TransWilts got gold in best social media promotion for the Weymouth Wizard marketing
   http://atrebatia.info/railfuture2015_8.pdf
The challenge of getting decent loadings onto an HST from Swindon and Chippenham to Weymouth on August Saturdays. FGW (as it was at the time) [indeed one of our members here!] put together at-station publicity, the TransWilts team went wider with social media such as Facebook, aiming at Swindon and Chippenham resident who might not normally have thought of using the train, and the net result was that we ended up with hundred and hundreds of people every Saturday, with about a 50 / 50 split of travellers being brought by rail industry promotion and by our off-station campaign (I have detailed figures as I travelled and asks the "how did you hear about us" question!)

And The Coffee Shop entry got Silver in best website
   http://atrebatia.info/railfuture2015_3.pdf
which is an award for the active admins (Chris from Nailsea and Bobm), the whole moderator team and most of all the contributing members without whom the site would be - literally -empty space.

My own congratulations go to bobm for his individual award and to grahame for his various collective awards on behalf of TransWilts.  :D

I'd also like to thank every one of our registered, active and posting members of the Coffee Shop forum for helping all of us here to win Silver in 'best website'.

Chris from Nailsea.  ;) :D ;D

Thanks to those who have posted and "liked" here and those who have sent texts following yesterday's commendation.  I was truly shocked to be named a winner.

I am also delighted that Graham got to go up the front three times, as opposed to my once!   ;D

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/brisgje.jpg)

From the Railfuture website - their press release on the awards

http://www.railfuture.org.uk/Press+release+8th+November+2015

Congratulations to everyone concerned.