Free guided walk to celebrate Community Rail Week

Heading off from from Meadowhall Interchange Station near Sheffield at 10.30am, the walk will take in local routes including through ancient woodland and along the Trans-Pennine Trail.

More information can be found at penline.co.uk.

The walk is one of many activities taking place in Yorkshire and the Humber and across Britain during Community Rail Week, which runs from May 22-28, including youth engagement projects, guided walks and station tours, and campaigns promoting scenic and sustainable leisure travel, all aiming to connect and empower communities, break down travel barriers, and help us move towards a greener, healthier transport future.

Community Rail Week, organised by Community Rail Network and sponsored by Rail Delivery Group, shines a light on the year-round work of Britain’s 76 community rail partnerships, which cover 34% of Britain’s railway network, and 1,200 station friends groups made up of more than 10,000 volunteers, who tend to about half (47%) of Britain’s 2,570 stations. This includes six community rail partnerships and around 130 station groups covering routes across Yorkshire and the Humber.

Community rail aims to improve travel confidence, increase access to opportunity, tackle social isolation, give communities a voice, and put railways and stations at the heart of community life, while supporting a shift to sustainable, more social forms of travel, including rail.

Jools Townsend, chief executive of Community Rail Network, said: “Community rail partnerships and thousands of ‘station friends’ volunteers the length and breadth of Britain, including many across Yorkshire and the Humber, are mobilising en masse, engaging local people and partners to raise awareness about sustainable travel by rail, and get people enthused about its many benefits.”

Other activities in Yorkshire and the Humber include the Yorkshire Coast Community Rail Partnership promoting rail journeys along its line to Bridlington and Scarborough at Doncaster Station, and demonstrating its rail user app.

Ms Townsend added: “Community Rail Week is all about connecting communities and bringing people together, while supporting and enabling more people to travel sustainably by train and access the opportunities they want. Community rail has an inspiring track record of doing just that: promoting travel confidence and broadening mobility horizons, sometimes with life-changing effects, while giving communities a voice on transport, and putting railways and stations at the heart of community life.”