National Railfuture RUG Awards

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

Congratulations are due to both Bobm & Transwilts CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) for walking off with four (I think, I lost count) RUG^» (Rail User Group - about) 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!

[grahame]

Congratulations are due to both Bobm & Transwilts CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) for walking off with four (I think, I lost count) RUG^» (Rail User Group - about) 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  service at Chppenham (word I picked up from East Anglia folks!)

[grahame]

Thanks, Chris ... I'll fill you in when I get home.  Currently on train ...  about to change to the Interurban  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^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) from Swindon and Chippenham to Weymouth on August Saturdays. FGW^▸ (First Great Western) (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.

[Chris from Nailsea]

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

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. 

[bobm]

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!   

[grahame]

From the Railfuture website - their press release on the awards

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

The winners of this year's Rail User Group awards have been announced. The awards, organised by campaign group Railfuture, aim to recognise and reward local volunteers who come together and work tirelessly to improve their local railway and stations on behalf of their passengers. The judging panel consisted of Railfuture Vice Presidents Ian Brown, Roger Ford, Stewart Palmer, and Lorna Slade. The awards this year were presented by Christian Wolmar, Railfuture President, at a ceremony at the Mercure Hotel in Bristol.

[Tiffy]

Congratulations to everyone concerned.