The West of Lancashire CRP held their quarterly management group meeting on Tuesday 11th October 2022. The meeting was held online and representatives from Community Rail Lancashire, train operators Northern & TransPennine Express, West Lancashire Borough Council, Sefton Council, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, the British Transport Police, the South East Lancashire CRP and Friends of Stations were present.
Stephen Benge, Chair of the CRP welcomed everyone to the meeting and the minutes of the last meeting were approved.
Richard Watts, Secretary of the CRP presented the latest Activity Plan and highlighted a number of points:
The re-accreditation meeting in full swing in the ‘bunker’ at Accrington.
+ The re-accreditation meeting for Community Rail Lancashire and its four constituent CRPs had taken place on 3rd October 2022 and confidence is high for the accreditation to be renewed.
+ Noted that a group has been set up, chaired by Karen Hornby (Calder Valley CRP), that is to look at the problem of anti social behaviour across the Northern area and that a funding bid is to be considered at the next Community Rail Executive Group (ComREG) meeting on 19th October.
+ Spoke about the Community Rail Awards that had taken place last week and the number of entries that had been shortlisted (see https://communityraillancashire.co.uk/news/crl-shortlisted-for-community-rail-awards-2/ for shortlist details and Winners Booklet for all the results)
+ Noted that the usual mini timetables will be produced for the December timetable change and that the missing services on the Preston to Ormskirk route will be reinstated.
+ Noted that CRL has been successful in a bid for funding for a ‘Hidden Gems’ project in the Merseyrail area.
+ Noted that CRL had attended the DfT’s ‘Afternoon Tea’ event in London and that Shahiesta Raja had done a presentation on the Refugee Railway Support Programme and that a best practice paper about this project can be downloaded from the CRKL website (Refugee Railway Support Programme).
+ Also mentioned was a new project to highlight various stations across the CRL patch called Spotlight on Stations is being undertaken by ICG a marketing company and details can be found on the website – communityraillancashire.co.uk/spotlight-on-stations/.
The full Quarterly Activity Report can be down loaded on this link: WoLCRP Activity Update
Owain Roberts & Simon Abbott from Northern gave an update including details of post covid demand on the routes, performance, the latest on the industrial action, community rail matters and the launch of Northern’s ‘Blue Plaques Map’. The full presentation can be downloaded on this link: Northern Update
Daniel Fox from TransPennine Express also delivered a short presentation and this can be seen on this link: CRP Update October 2022 WOLCRP