The Awards

The Community Rail Awards were devised in 2005 so that the unsung heroes and heroines of the community rail world would have their hard work and dedication publicly recognised and rewarded. At the time, no other railway or transport awards were paying much heed to the development and achievements within our sector so we thought it was time for us to create
our very own dedicated awards to celebrate all that was outstanding about it; hence the birth of the annual Community Rail Awards!

The emphasis of the awards was, and still is, on rewarding excellence and promoting best practice in community rail development, recognising the ordinary people doing extraordinary things on behalf of the railway and the community. The first gala dinner was held in Norwich in September 2005, where we received over 200 entries. It complemented the first Community Rail Festival, also held in Norwich on the weekend following the awards evening. It was all such a success that we decided to do it again and again and again.

Now established as a significant annual event, traditionally held on a Friday evening in late September, our awards have developed into the ‘Not to Miss’ event of the Community Rail Calendar. We have now hosted seven Community Rail Awards at a variety of stunning venues throughout the UK and we are very pleased to announce that the venue for the 2012 Community Rail Awards gala dinner and presentation evening is the magnificent STEAM Railway Museum in Swindon on Friday 28th September.

We are delighted that Mark Hopwood, Managing Director of First Great Western, has agreed to be our guest presenter this year.

We are very proud of this special ACoRP event and hope to receive even more entries this year! Look out for our new ‘Small Projects Award’. We look forward to seeing you there

Neil Buxton,
General Manager, ACoRP