It was an eventful Community Rail Week 2026 (1-7 June) for South East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership (SELCRP), with the theme of this year’s celebrations being ‘Journeys For All’. Community Rail Week is an annual event coordinated by Community Rail Network and sponsored by Rail Delivery Group, designed to raise the profile of Community Rail and champion projects and activity across the country.
Throughout the week, SELCRP delivered a themed social media campaign on Facebook and Instagram, highlighting Community Rail activities of the CRP and beyond, tying in with the ‘Journeys For All’ concept. This received significant positive public engagement.
SELCRP also attended a number of Community Rail events during the week, starting with Community Rail Lancashire’s (CRL) celebration of 25 years of Community Rail in Lancashire held at ‘the bunker’ at Accrington Station on 1 June.
‘The bunker’ is the name given to the innovative space and educational area underneath Accrington Station and had been specially decorated for the day by CRL’s Catherine Kingdom and Dave Savage. Proceedings began with a special proclamation from the Town Crier, followed by an introduction by Community Rail Officer Dave Savage. CRL’s Chair Richard Watts then delivered a keynote speech, followed by some words from Martin Keating (Northern) and Ian Davis and Paul Webster (Community Rail Network). An impressively large cake made specially for the occasion also featured, cut by the first two directors of CRL, Richard Watts and Simon Clarke.
Wednesday 3 June saw a Community Rail Network event take place at Hindley Station, in partnership with Friends of Hindley Station and Thrive CIC. It opened with some insightful welcome words from Community Rail Network Chief Executive Jools Townsend. This was followed by a tour of Hindley Station and its garden space by lead volunteer and SELCRP Committee Member Sheila Davidson and members of Thrive CIC who have been significantly involved in volunteering there. Hindley Station is a notable example of volunteering effort, with impressively landscaped gardens, decorative features and an allotment area. A buffet lunch concluded the event, hosted at the Eddington Arms.
Thursday 4 June then saw SELCRP’s Community Rail Officer Emily Oldfield attend Piccadilly Station alongside Community Rail Lancashire and Arts to Heal, in a day designed to spread awareness of Community Rail to the public. Setting up banners, leaflets and resources at the heart of the station was a great opportunity to connect with a wide range of people, alongside other CRPs and organisations including Crewe to Manchester CRP, South East Manchester CRP, GM Ringway and colleagues from Northern, Network Rail and CrossCountry Trains.
It was a week full of activities focused on community engagement and celebrating the hard work done at stations – a very fitting celebration.
