Yesterday 1 June saw the start of Community Rail Week 2026 and Community Rail Lancashire celebrated 25 years of community rail in Lancashire in the ‘bunker’ at Accrington station.
Staff, Directors and guests gather outside the bunker at Accrington
Once all the guests had arrived and a lovely buffet lunch had been dispatched the main event of the day got underway in spectacular style with Great Harwood’s Town Crier opening proceedings with a proclamation.
You can hear the proclamation on this link: Town Crier
This was followed by an introduction by CRL’s Dave Savage and then followed by the keynote speech by Richard Watts Chair of Community Rail Lancashire. Next was Martin Keating, Regional Community & Sustainability Manager (West) with Northern and then Ian Davis and Paul Webster from the Community Rail Network.
After the speeches a celebratory cake was cut by Richard Watts and Simon Clarke, the first two directors of Community Rail Lancashire.
Simon Clarke (left) and Richard Watts (right) cutting the celebratory cake.
The bunker had been prepared by Dave Savage and Catherine Kingdom and there was details of awards won over the years, newsletters, walks leaflets and loads of other publicity that CRL has produced during the 25 years.
One of the guests was Stephen Caton, a local designer, who has worked with CRL over the last 20 years or so and he had arranged to print an Anniversary Booklet that celebrates the 25 years of community rail in Lancashire and this can be downloaded here CRL 25th Anniversary Booklet