The West of Lancashire Community Rail Partnership held their latest Management Group Meeting on Monday 10 November 2025. The online meeting was well attended with representatives from Community Rail Lancashire, Lancashire County Council, Northern, West of Lancashire Borough Council, Sefton Council, Transport for Greater Manchester, Network Rail, the Community Rail Network, the Ormskirk, Preston & Southport Travellers Association and the Friends of Burscough stations.
Croston – photo © Richard Watts
Stephen Benge, Chair of the CRP, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone.
The minutes of the last meeting, held in July 2025 were approved, and it was noted that the CRL branded board at Hoscar will be moved with a date to be confirmed.
Partnership Secretary Richard Watts gave an update on the Activity Plan including the following points:
+ Noted that CRL has appointed Beth Nolan, who previously was involved with the Try The Train project, as the Community Rail Officer covering the West Lancashire area. Thanks were given to CH for all her work in supporting multiple projects in this area.
+ The (re) accreditation for CRL and the 4 Lancashire CRPs took place on the 23rd October. Thanks to
Stephen Benge for attending and we await the formal confirmation of our (re)accreditation.
+ BBC Making a Difference 13th September: Stations of Welcome winner in the Community Group category.
+ National Rail Awards 17th September – both Try The Train and St Anne’s Station were highly commended.
+ Members of the CRL team attended the DfT/CRN Community Rail Conference on 6th & 7th October.
+ Croston Heritage Open Days held on 13th & 14th September, with an intention to promote the line.
+ Noted that the Railway 200 Inspiration Train had visited Blackpool North and is scheduled to visit Preston Steam Railway and Southport in the near future.
The full presentation that includes the points above and a lot more including education team updates can be seen on this link: Activity Plan update 10 11 2025-compressed
Following on from Richard’s report other members of the management group gave updates via presentations and these can be downloaded on the links below:
Other members gave verbal reports including:
Transport for Greater Manchester, Sarah Grimes & Simon Abbott spoke about the Bee Network across the Greater Manchester stations noting that it was being done over three tranches and should be complete in 2028.
Community Rail Network, Ian Davis thanked everyone for their input for the reaccreditation meeting and mentioned a number of upcoming training sessions.
Ormskirk, Preston & Southport Travellers Association, Dennis O’Connell commented on the level of cancellations on the Southport Line and noted that there has been an increase of passengers travelling to Preston including a good number of students.
Network Rail, Andy Griffin gave a short update and thanked everyone involved for the success of the Inspiration Train when it was in Blackpool North.
There was no other business raised and the meeting closed. The next meeting will be an online meeting and will be held on 26 February 2026.