Our Community Rail Officer, Eve Sherratt, has spent the past few weeks meeting with some of the most inspiring people and projects around our rail network. Read on to find out more.
One thing I love about being a Community Rail Officer is helping to develop new projects that enrich the communities along our rail network. In June, I met with Mumbles Development Trust at the Beach Hut Cafe at Swansea Pier to discuss the possibility of an annual event to celebrate the Mumbles Railway.
This would connect with our Rail Heritage Project and Railway200, an upcoming Transport for Wales project celebrating the 200th anniversary of the world’s first passenger railway journey under steam power, which took place on the Stockton and Darlington Railway on 27 September 1825.
Also in June, I met with GWR for promotional filming at Swansea Arena and the National Waterfront Museum and attended the Transport for Wales Annual in-person meeting in Pontypridd, which was a great opportunity to meet up with other Community Rail Partnerships to discuss projects and exchange ideas.
June 7-15 was The Great Big Green Week, as part of which we held an event outside the Swansea Station in collaboration with Climate Cymru. We got people playing Spin the Wheel, handed out grow-your-own seeds, and encouraged kids to get involved by making chalk pictures on the floor.
The Great Big Green Week (GBGW) is the UK’s biggest-ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature. Almost 40 local events and activities took place across Swansea during GBGW, from nature walks and cycle rides to craft workshops, theatre, repair cafes, and much more.
On June 12, I met with Pembrokeshire Tourism to discuss the new Pembrokeshire Tourism website which will be launched in September, and to find out more about the fantastic café, B&B and heritage museum at Login Station.
Also on the 12th was a PACT meeting with British Transport Police at Swansea Station. PACT stands for Police and Communities Together, and these meetings are an important opportunity to discuss issues such as safety at our railway stations.
On June 13 I delivered some of our fantastic Train of Thought poetry books to Swansea Young Writers Squad run by Jo Furber at the Dylan Thomas Centre Swansea. The Train of Thought poetry anthology, published in partnership with Severnside Community Rail Partnership, showcases outstanding poetry by people in poetry groups across our region. It’s been very warmly received and has inspired the young writers of Swansea to get involved with the railway. The good news is, we’ve been given some additional funding to expand on the project, which we’re really excited about. More news to come soon!
On June 18, I took Sadie’s Butterflies LGBTQ+ group on one of our Joy of the Journey trips. Joy of the Journey is an initiative we run in collaboration with Transport for Wales to take people for days out on the train, helping to tackle loneliness, isolation and to build confidence around using the railway. We take community groups out for a day trip by rail including light refreshments, to show them how easy and accessible it is to travel by train. Sadie’s Butterflies travelled with me from Swansea to Tenby and back, and said they felt confident and safe using the train after the journey. We had a wonderful lunch together in Tenby. While in Tenby I met with the Tenby station adopters and gave them some of our Sustainable Transport travel guides and poetry brochures to distribute. Station adopters do amazing work across our network keeping our stations looking beautiful.
Later in June, I had a meeting at Swansea Arena to discuss the Arena becoming part of our Joy of the Journey offering in Swansea, along with their musical afternoons and mornings and restaurant partners – which is great news for any community groups travelling to Swansea on a Joy of the Journey trip!
On June 19, I took a train trip to Carmarthen to meet the staff there and see if we can make any improvements to the station and its planters. We are eager to find adopters for Carmarthen station, so if you’re interested, please get in touch!
On June 19 I met with our writer to discuss updates on our website, which is the place to go to read about all our latest news and projects. We’ve got much more to share over the coming weeks, so stand by for some great announcements, community news, projects and more!
On June 21, I had an online meeting with St Mark’s Primary School in Pembrokeshire to plan a possible visit to Plantasia in Swansea, including a talk on plants and sustainability and a safety talk from British Transport Police – an important piece of education for all children.
On June 22, Wheelrights, a group that campaigns for improved facilities for cyclists in the Swansea Bay area, held an event in Mumbles to celebrate the historic Welsh figure Owain Lawgoch and the amazing fundraising work done by Kevin Bowen of Cross Hands as he returned from a 1600-mile cycle trip to and from the Owain Lawgoch monument in Mortagne sur Gironde, France to raise money for a statue to Owain Lawgoch in Wales, and for Parkinson’s UK. It has been great to help support the campaign on social media. Keep an eye on our website for a blog post all about his work – coming soon!
June 24 brought another Joy of the Journey trip, this time for The Tenby Project, a delightful group who travelled from Tenby to Carmarthen to see the sights and learn all about rail safety before visiting some shops and having some lovely light refreshments.
On June 25 I had the pleasure of once again meeting with the Mums and Toddlers Foundation, to discuss a possible cultural event with the Ladies’ Group from Haverfordwest. The Mums and Toddlers Foundation, founded by Maureen Ekenne, provides vital support for mums in Swansea and the surrounding area – you can read more about them here.
It’s always great to find ways to bring community groups together, and with that in mind, on June 27 I visited the Collaboration Station in Swansea Waterfront to meet with community groups and discuss how we can collaborate in the coming months. Some great ideas are brewing!
I rounded off June with a meeting to discuss the station planters outside Swansea station – a project detailed here.
In other news, our Rail Heritage project will be hosting its next meeting in Neath in September – details and invitations to follow.