Over the last few years there has been an increase in people coming to the UK from countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, fleeing war and oppressive regimes. Community Rail Lancashire (CRL) has developed the Refugee Railway Support Programme to help these families access rail travel confidently.
It is often difficult for people who have lived in the UK all their lives to travel by train if it is something they haven’t done before. If English is not your first language and you have the added mental health issue of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of living in a war zone, one can only imagine the process of relocating to a country andf having to start life all over again, trying to adapt to a new culture.
CRL’s Refugee Railway Support Programme has meant that refugee families living in Lancashire have been able to familiarise themselves with rail travel in the UK. This was achieved by taking the families through the process of planning a rail journey step by step, at a pace they can easily cope with and in a language they speak and can understand.
The idea was to deliver the useful information that they needed about rail travel through trips to local places of interest and employment to help promote integration, and eventually independent travel.
Download the full paper about this programme on this link: Refugee Railway Support Programme