Abellio Greater Anglia and regional Community Rail Partnerships short-listed for seven awards at Com

Published on: Thursday, 14 August 2014
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016

Abellio Greater Anglia and the Community Rail Partnerships (CRPs) with which it works to promote local and community train services in East Anglia, have been short-listed for seven awards at this year's national Community Rail Awards.

The awards, in their tenth year, celebrate outstanding achievement and best practice in community rail development.

The initiatives and improvements for which Greater Anglia and the East Anglian CRPs have been recognised are as follows:

  • Community Art Schemes – Permanent Projects - Essex & South Suffolk CRP, Abellio Greater Anglia, Braintree District Council and Madelaine Murphy for ‘Alexandra’, the Braintree Freeport station sculpture; Trevor and Diane Cobb for the ‘Frinton Station Mural’; and Vauxhall Links charity for the ‘Vauxhall Bridge Mural’ in Great Yarmouth.
  • Outstanding Teamwork Award - Abellio Greater Anglia, Suffolk County Council, and East Suffolk Line CRP for ‘Developing the East Suffolk Line’ and the newly formed Hereward CRP, Abellio Greater Anglia and Manea Village Community for ‘Working Together in Manea to improve rail services’ following the introduction of an hourly service to the station in December 2013.
  • Passengers Matter - Abellio Greater Anglia, Suffolk County Council and the East Suffolk Line CRP for ‘Developing The East Suffolk Line’
  • Photo Competition/ Best ‘Essence of Community Rail’ Image - Chris Wood of Community Rail Norfolk for ‘Morris On the Bittern Line’

The impressive list of projects receiving recognition illustrates the proactive and professional approach taken by Abellio Greater Anglia and the CRPs across the region in promoting local lines to the benefit of passengers and the communities they serve. The projects reaching the short-lists cover a range of award categories from volunteering initiatives (improving station presentation and assisting passengers) to community art projects, service improvements and community involvement. They are also spread across a number of Community Rail lines in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire.

The award winners and commended initiatives will be announced at the 10th annual Community Rail Awards event which will be held in Scarborough on Thursday 2nd October.

Commenting on the success of Abellio Greater Anglia and the East Anglian CRPs in achieving so many short-listed entries, Jonathan Denby, Head of Corporate Affairs for Abellio Greater Anglia said:

"We're pleased that our positive work with CRPs across our network, to promote and improve local lines for the customers and communities they serve, has led to a number of our initiatives being short-listed for the Community Rail Awards. From the start of our franchise we made a real commitment to our Community Rail lines - doubling train operator funding for the CRPs in East Anglia and investing time and resources into working closely with them to encourage more people to use the train - as well as optimising the role of rail services and stations in supporting local communities and the local economy. It's great to see this partnership approach and the efforts of many people in Abellio Greater Anglia, the CRPs and local councils, plus some outstanding volunteers, receiving national recognition. We'll continue to work together to develop community rail lines - and with the start of our new short contract to October 2016 we have increased our funding to them by a further 20%."