The Leeds-Morecambe Community Rail Partnership and the Friends of Bentham Station community groups are celebrating the fantastic news that the Bentham Line has been short-listed five times in four categories at the National Community Rail Awards.

The categories include ‘Community Creative Projects and Station Arts’ and the ‘Most Effective Communications Campaign’.

2024 marks the 19th year of the Community Rail Awards, which focus on celebrating the incredible work undertaken by volunteers over Britain’s Rail Network.

The teams of volunteers work tirelessly to create a welcoming space at stations for people to enjoy alongside engaging the community, including schools, colleges and other local groups, to raise awareness about the many benefits of rail travel.

Impressive projects carried out include the restoration of Heysham Port station which features new artwork ‘Rail and Snail’ and coincides with the newly built ‘Manxman’ ferry for the Isle of Man route.

This project has seen the Community Rail Partnership work with rail bodies, local councils, volunteer organisations, and a local primary school.

Destination Wellbeing’ marks another fantastic example of project work carried out by the Community Rail Partnership in collaboration with Northern Train’s Year-In Industry students. The impressive and successful campaign deals with loneliness and isolation and was inspired by the student’s experience during the pandemic.

The award category ‘It’s Your Station’ has seen the Friends of Bentham Station achieve ‘gold status’ through their incredible feats of volunteering both at the station and within the local area and are keeping their fingers crossed to be named ‘top gold station’ at the awards.

The Community Rail Photographic Competition has seen Gerald Townson, who is Chair for Friends of Bentham Station and the Community Rail Partnership, short-listed twice for images in the theme of ‘the essence of community rail’.

The awards ceremony is set to take place Monday the 18th of March at the Swansea Arena and is sponsored by Great Western Railway and Transport for Wales.

We are extremely delighted that all of our entries have reached the various shortlists and we now look forward to heading to the gala event in Swansea for the results. FOBS are now in their 12th year of volunteering continue to enhance station making it a focal point for the community and Bentham Line passengers. The LMCRP has enjoyed working alongside Northern’s Year-in-Industry students on the thoughtful ‘Destination Wellbeing’ project and numerous partners, including St. Peter’s Primary School, the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, Peel Ports Ltd., on the rejuvenation of Heysham Port station.

Gerald Townson, Chair Leeds-Morecambe Community Rail Partnership and Friends of Bentham Station

Our Community Rail Awards showcase the amazing projects, initiatives and people across Britain, that make community rail. This year we’ve received over 200 sub-missions and as always, the standard of entries has been extremely high. We’re looking forward to joining our community rail colleagues and industry partners to celebrate their hard work, positivity, and dedication at our Awards evening in March.

Jools Townsend, Chief Executive of Community Rail Network