Great Western Coffee Shop

Community rail is transforming. Set up over 20 years ago, Community Rail Partnerships have been highly successful in bringing passengers onto lesser used lines, and raising ridership in catchments served per head of population.  Enormous congratulations to those (some of whom read us here) who have achieved this. And building on that success, Community Rail is moving on to build on that strength with its four pillars that we share in our constitutuion.  As part of that process, Community Rail Partnerships are moving from designation to acreditation, and are moving much more to being aligned with local authority and transport authority areas than with lines or services.  It was notable to hear ACoRP's operation manager for our area to talk about "Community Rail Partnerships" as organisations linking "Rail, local authorities and the community" at the recent GWR conference in Bristol - and with a background that significant funding is expected from the local authority.  Following from that, we're seeing the local authority / local government area of Community Rail Partnerships is some places coming far larger and perhaps dominant or even overwhelming.

In many cases, this rebalancing may be exactly right - moving from the immediate need of getting bums on seats of empty trains that enthusiastic volunteers can help with so much to planning for the next 5, 10 or 20 years. It's hard to find volunteers with the necessary interest, knowledge base, skill base and mandate to set up the next genration of local rail or - we hope - local integrated transport.  And I applaud the people who take that role.

But let's make sure we don't throw out the baby with the bathwater as we move on. For most lines and services, the well established volunteer teams and enthusiasm can and should be kept on - keep building use and traffic as that's very much helpful to the four pillars.   And for a few, the old role of getting bums on seats - passengers on trains and a good penetration of the catchment - is still a vital necessity.

I've taken a dozen towns across GWR land and looked at their passenger numbers 20 years ago and today. I've looked at the catchment population, and I've evaluated whether they needed traditional Community Rail 20 years and, and if they need it now.   Scores are based 50% on absolute passenger numbers, and 50% on journeys per head of population.  As a red herring, I've also added a column to show the growth factor achieved over the 20 years.   As a footnote, "Falmouth" numbers are the sum of all three stations there.

Station	catchment	1998 psgrs	2018 psgrs	20 year growth	1998 av. journeys	2018 av. journeys	Needed Classic 1998	Need Classic now
Warminster	20000	206409	365892	1.8	10.3	18.3	***
Highbridge	22000	64111	207186	3.2	2.9	9.4	******	***
Melksham	24000	3868	75000	19.4	0.2	3.1	******	******
Chippenham	47000	945435	1890086	2.0	20.1	40.2
Looe	6000	65305	118308	1.8	10.9	19.7	****	**
Barnstaple	22000	201967	440404	2.2	9.2	20.0	***
Avonmouth	13000	41042	123932	3.0	3.2	9.5	******	***
Marlow	15000	262874	275240	1.0	17.5	18.3	*	*
Evesham	25000	185098	246900	1.3	7.4	9.9	****	**
Neath	47000	461502	816748	1.8	9.8	17.4	*
BradfordOA	11000	187957	525968	2.8	17.1	47.8	**
Falmouth	32500	152091	512152	3.4	4.7	15.8	****

Only three stations have seen no improvement in ranking over the 20 years.  Chippenham was AOK anyway and Marlow was not far off.   Melksham hasn't even come onto the bottom of the scale yet in spite of massive growth - passenger numbers remain poor (under 110k) and journeys per head of population also remain poor (averaging under 4 per head of population).

Huge congratulations to Falmouth and Barnstaple for moving (on my scheme) out of the low-needs-serious-look zones;  Looe has done remarkably well for a relatively small town and will always benefit from Community support.   Other such as Avonmouth have significant enhancement plans that should lift them out of the zone, and Evesham benefits from better service and brand new trains this year.

Views in this post are personal and should not be attributed as being the view of any organisation of which I'ma  member.   And there are elements which are more designed as food for thought.

Great to see the almost universal renaissance of rail at the stations listed and the thousands of others, regardless of whether a station is more likely to attract commuters or leisure travellers.

An update from the Department for Transport (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-rail-partnerships-authorities-and-accreditation-status) on the move of designated lines / services to accredited Community Rail Partnerships

From Twitter (https://twitter.com/EVRDC/status/1218106828510453760)


Having seen the amount of preparation for accreditation, congratulations to them and to every CRP that has made the step successfully.  Hadn't realised it needed to be done every year, but they say so and I note the logo says "2019-20" which rather confirm the 12 month nature.   Hope one year's work can be used as the basis for the following year ...