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SFLCRP Quarterly Meeting October 2024

The South Fylde Line Community Rail Partnership quarterly meeting took place on Monday 7th October. Tony Ford, Chair of the CRP, opened the meeting welcoming the amount of activity that has taken place along the line especially through the work of the station adoption groups.

Moss Side station mural updated August 2024 – photo © Peter Fitton

Here are some of the meeting highlights: 

A new station adoption group for Blackpool Pleasure Beach Station was formally launched in September. A special mention was made of the work of Caroline Holden, CRL’s Community Rail Development Officer and Tony Ford, Chair of the SFLCRP who helped form the group and for the support and encouragement from Martin Keating, Northern and Andy Griffin, Network Rail. The new group has also been supported by UR Potential and Community Payback. As Caroline comments “It has been great teamwork that brought this group together”. More information about the group can be found HEREhttps://communityraillancashire.co.uk/news/friends-of-blackpool-pleasure-beach-station/. Following this Caroline and Tony are now looking to reinvigorate the adoption group at Blackpool South station.

The CRP has been successful in a bid to the Community Rail Network’s Community Rail Development Fund to enable it to update and reprint the 4 self-guide walk leaflets based on walks from stations along the South Fylde line. The leaflets are being distributed along the line and can be downloaded from the CRL website at: https://communityraillancashire.co.uk/the-south-fylde-line/

At Kirkham Wesham a new station history poster was unveiled at a short ceremony on the 29th July. The new poster can be viewed here:
Kirkham & Wesham History Poster. Special thanks were given to Peter Fitton for his considerable assistance in the creation of the poster and for use of his photographs.

Kirkham & Wesham history poster unveiling – photo © Caroline Holden

Disappointment was expressed at the cancellation of the Restoring Your Railway project. This affects both the anticipated enhanced service on the South Fylde line along with a passing loop and also the re-opening of the Poulton to Fleetwood Line. It is hoped that the Government review of all railway projects will see this included in future enhancement programmes.

Mike Cliffe from Lancashire County Council gave an update on the progress with the level access route to Squires Gate station. He expects the project will be completed during 2025 once all the legal and technical issues have all been resolved.

The CRP joined Community Rail Lancashire and the other Lancashire CRPs for the annual (re)accreditation meeting on the 14th October at Accrington. The meeting was chaired by the Community Rail Network and it is expected that the recommendation will be to (re)accredit the CRP.

The meeting received a presentation from Northern which can be viewed by clicking here: Northern SFLCRP October 2024 Northern gave an update on current service performance and some of the issues they are currently working to resolve. They also reported on the recent well attended Northern Community Rail conference and welcomed the great work being done by the station adoption groups along the line.

The meeting heard about the recent activities of the CRL Education Team including the Try The Train and Feel Good Field Trips projects. The meeting also learnt about the new Northern Education Network which will be meeting 4 times a year across the north of England. The Education Team quarterly report can be seen here: Education Report Quarter 3 (short).

The Community Rail Network provided a list of forthcoming events which can be viewed here: Community Rail Network.