The West of Lancashire Community Rail Partnership held their latest Management Group Meeting on Thursday 10 July 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, the Community Rail Network and the Friends of Hoscar & Parbold stations.
Rufford station – photograph © Caroline Holden
Stephen Benge, Chair of the CRP, opened the meeting and welcomed new member Sarah Grimes from Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) to the meeting.
The minutes of the last meeting, held in January 2025 were approved, and no matters arising were raised.
Partnership Secretary Richard Watts gave an update on the Activity Plan including a report from Beth Nolan on the Try The Train initiative. The update covered the following points:
+ CRL staffed a stand at the Lancashire Science Fair from the 15th to 17th May 2025
+ During Community Rail Week 19th to 26th May 2025 the CRP shared a stall with Martin Mere at Manchester Piccadilly
+ A meeting for station adopters was held on 27th May 2025 in County Hall, Preston
+ A new children’s book by Susan Brownrigg called ‘Wrong Tracks’ was on the right track to Rufford CE Primary School, followed by trip to Lancashire Archives.
Caroline Holden, Susan Brownrigg, Stephen Benge & Sarah Newsham – photograph © Caroline Holden collection
Looking ahead:
+ Continue to rollout Try The Train across West Lancashire and to develop promotional material to recruit groups in key areas such as Wigan, Ormskirk and Southport.
+ noted that 13th & 14th September 2025 sees Croston Heritage Days.
+ The (re) accreditation meeting for the four CRPs and CRL has been set for the 23rd October 2025.
+ The Railway 200 Inspiration Train visiting Blackpool North on 4th to 7th November 2025 and across the NW from the 4th to 26th January 2026 – booking is essential and can done through this website https://railway200.co.uk/inspiration/.
The full Activity Plan Update can be downloaded on this link Activity Plan Update 10 July 2025
Education Team
The Quarter 2 Education Report had been previously circulated and this can be downloaded on this link Quarter 2 2025 report
Other Reports
Reports were received from member organisations and these can be downloaded by clicking the links below:
Northern presentation 10 07 2025
Network Rail Updates 10 07 2025
Friends of Stations
David Pryer reported as follows:
+ Parbold: the long- awaited new banners are in place all with a ‘Walks from Parbold’ themes and featuring places of interest.
+ Hoscar: had a visit from Sarah Morgan who saw the work in progress on the wildflower plot. Agreed to photo an upside-down CR poster case so it can be rotated in due course.
+ Burscough Jct: reported that the disused platform was overgrown and welcomed the recent litter pick.
The next meeting is due to be held in November 2025.