The West of Lancashire Community Rail Partnership (WoLCRP) held its quarterly meeting on Monday 20 January 2025.
- Burscough -Rufford walk 19.10.24 – photo © Dave Savage
- Burscough -Rufford walk 19.10.24 – photo © Dave Savage
The online meeting was well attended with representatives from Community Rail Lancashire, West Lancashire Borough Council, Northern Railways, Lancashire County Council, Sefton Council, Merseytravel, Transpennine Express, Transport for Greater Manchester and Friends of Stations.
Stephen Benge, Chair of the CRP, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to this meeting, the first of 2025, and noted that the railway industry is celebrating Railway 200, two hundred years since the first passenger service ran on the Stockton & Darlington Railway.
The minutes of the last meeting, held in October 2024 were approved, and no matters arising were raised. The attendees also approved the latest version of the Terms of Reference for the CRP.
Andrew Watkins, Community & Development Manager for TPE showed a short presentation which covered the December 2024 timetable changes, driver training and cancellations. He also spoke about West Coast Kitchens who are now providing catering on the West Coast Main Line services.
Richard Watts, CRP Secretary, updated the group on the CRP Activity Plan and covered the following points:

The full CRL team on the terrace at the Houses of Parliament – photo © JoJo Buckley.
+ Mentioned the Parliamentary Reception to celebrate the success of the Feel Good Field Trips (FGFT), along with a photo of the CRL Team on the balcony at the Houses of Parliament and also thanked Northern & Merseyrail for their support.
+ Noted that the Office of Rail & Road passenger data has been released and showing improved results for stations on the Ormskirk branch but not as good for stations between Wigan and Southport probably due to Sunday service problems.
+ Noted that CRL has four shortlisted entries for the Community Rail Awards (CRA25) taking place in Newcastle in March – see communityraillancashire.co.uk/news/crl-successes-in-shortlist-for-cra25/.
+ Also spoke about the Community Rail Network (CRN) possibly becoming a Charitable Company limited by guarantee. Plans to work with the three schools affected by the murders in Southport. Plans for Community Rail Week (CRW25) and asked for any suggestions. Spoke about Railway 200 and the plans for the special train.
A copy of the full Activity Plan can be downloaded on this link: Activity Plan Update 20.01.2025.pdf
Katie Douglas, Accessibility & Inclusion Officer with CRL, updated on the Education Plan and reported that the education team had over 4,000 engagements with young people (excluding the FGFTs) and showed a map of the various places that they had ventured. Also noted that this information was available to be seen on the TrainEd website at https://trained.website. Also spoke about the Northern Education Network meetings and the next venues.
Next was Northern’s Owain Roberts and Martin Keating, who went trough a presentation that can be seen on this link: West-Lancashire CRP January 2025.pdf and covered these points:
+ OR spoke about the new Rest Day Working (RDW) agreement that took effect in November 2024 and how this will benefit training and an increased amount of RDs being worked.
+ OR Noted that Northern has two new recruits in Alex Hornby (Commercial & Customer Director) and Toby Higgins (Head of Business Performance). Also noted that they are looking to appoint a replacement for Simon Abbott shortly.
+ OR spoke about the ongoing issues with the 769 stock and the modifications that are taking place to improve powerpacks and engine harnesses.
+ MK gave an update on station volunteers and reminded everyone that the deadline for submissions to the Northern Community Rail Annual Report is Friday 24.01.25. Also noted that software changes have been made to Ticket Vending Machines to allow parking tickets to be issued.
+ OR finished off with performance and commercial points.
Mike Cliffe, Rail Development Manager with LCC gave a short update covering Restoring Your Railways, the Lancashire Devolution Deal, the Bus Service Improvement Plan noting the increase to £3 fares but that LCC are still supporting the £1 fare after 19:00 and on Sundays. Also noted that the Skelmersdale Bus Link is attracting good numbers and that there are talks ongoing about rail addon fares.
Jayne McLoughlin from Merseytravel spoke about the new Liverpool Baltic station, which is due to have funding approved and should be finished in 2027, and that they are working with local schools on various projects.

Photo used to advertise the Railway 200 Whistle Off – photo © Andy Ford
No one was present from Network Rail but Andy Griffin had sent a short note covering the Railway 200 special train calling points in the North West (Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool Lime Street, Crewe, Ribble Steam Railway, East Lancs Railway & Bolton). Noted that NwR would be hosting open day(s) on Manchester Piccadilly during CRW25 and asked for participants. Also ked that NwR are keen to get people to sign up to a new digital notification system that allows residents and businesses to receive timely and detailed information about ongoing railway work that Network Rail is carrying out near their home. Use this link to sign up: networkrail.co.uk/sign-up/.
After a short update from the various Friends of Stations the meeting was closed. The next meeting on Thursday 8 May 2025 will be the Annual General Meeting and will be held in Southport.