Job Vacancy We have a fantastic job vacancy, working at Kent Community Rail Partnership as part of the Sustrans South Officer team. You’ll be working with communities to make rail travel more accessible to all and to engage people with their railway. Take a look around our website for an overview of our recent projects and…
Get Closer to Nature with Southeastern’s Kent wildlife walks. Southeastern colleagues and stakeholders have the opportunity to join a fascinating programme of free nature walks and find out about the biodiversity wildlife and plants that live around us – across the Southeastern network. The brilliant team at Adonis Blue Environmental Consultants have partnered with…
Pop-up Promotional Stalls for Rail Safety Week During a sweltering Rail Safety Week, Gary and Dominic braved the heat to promote the British Transport Police 61016 service to rail users. On Monday we gave out some 360 cards at Tonbridge, showing the 61016 number and giving examples of when to use the service. The majority…
A fabulous new art trail ‘Shaun the Sheep in the Heart of Kent’ comes to Maidstone this Summer As if by magic 50 fabulous and colourful Shaun the Sheep Sculptures have appeared overnight around the landmarks of Maidstone town centre and will remain there from Saturday 29 June until 30 August 2024. Residents and…
Led Walk – Lenham to Hollingbourne on the North Downs Way National Trail, Wednesday 11th September 2024. Come and enjoy a 6 mile ramble from Lenham to Hollingbourne. We will start at Lenham station and visit the historic village centre on our way to join the North Downs Way at the chalk cross. As…
Rail Safety Week 2024 Kent Community Rail Partnership will be hosting two pop-up promotional stalls during Rail Safety Week. At these events we will be focusing on sharing the support available from British Transport Police through the 61016 text service and Railway Guardian App. Come along and meet us:- Monday 24th June, Tonbridge…
Led Walk – Wateringbury to Yalding on the Hills and Hoppers Rail Trail, Tuesday 10th September 2024. Come and enjoy a 4.5 mile ramble from Wateringbury, climbing gently to the hoppers huts at Shingle Barn Farm then descending to Yalding. We will walk through meadows and woodland, enjoying views of the Medway Valley and…
Guided walk on the Lakes and Marshes Rail Trail, 4th June 2024 The Lakes and Marshes Rail Trail is a 4.5 mile loop between Snodland and New Hythe stations, taking in the fantastic scenery and wildlife of Holborough Marshes, Leybourne Lakes and the River Medway. Our guided walks seek to connect people with nature…
Shaun the Sheep Art Trail arrives in Maidstone on 29th June (Image courtesy of Pennington PR Ltd) It’s only one month until the ‘Shaun the Sheep in the Heart of Kent’ art trail goes live in Maidstone. In the run-up to the event Shaun has recently been out and about meeting people and seeing the…
Maidstone East Station Adoption meeting with Valley Park School A very positive community engagement meeting with teachers from Valley Park School teachers. Valley Park School is considering adopting Maidstone East station for their students and exploring rail travel training opportunities – watch this space!
Faversham Festival of Transport 18/19 May – Community Rail Week 2024 Community Rail Week for 2024 has a theme of “More Than A Railway”, encouraging Community Rail Partnerships across the UK to share their work to wider audiences and set out how Community Rail can help people and places to flourish. An invitation to…
Travel Training trip to Charing station for Ashford College students Eight Ashford College Employability Skills students and their tutors Kate and Anita joined Matt and Therese at Ashford station with plants and soil to enhance the window boxes at Charing station. The students had all travelled by train before and explained how to find the…
Bearsted Station Adoption Meeting, 8th May 2024 On Wednesday 8th May we met with Southeastern and members of Bearsted CAN, the Bearsted and Thurnham Society and Bearsted Parish Council to discuss the potential for a community adoption of the station. It was wonderful to hear ideas from so many people about how community engagement could…
Rail Rambles 2024 2024 sees the return of our popular Rail Rambles. We will be hosting a number of guided walks between stations on our Medway Valley Line and Kent Downs Line, encouraging people to “Go Green By Train” for a “Days Out By Rail Adventure.” On our walks we will talk about…
Paws on the Platform Paws on the Platform aimed to highlight the practical barriers that people with visual impairments must overcome when travelling by train. The event brought people with a visual impairment together with Southeastern’s management team to share their experience of accessing rail services, to increase understanding of the difficulties that those with…
Ashford College Travel Training On Thursday 25th April we joined five special education needs (SEN) students and their tutors from Ashford College for a travel training visit to Maidstone East. During our introduction we established that the students were infrequent rail users and unfamiliar with stations environments. We then explained the various display screens…
Cuxton for Ranscombe Reserve The Friends of Cuxton station have always been keen to encourage people to travel sustainably to explore their village and the surrounding Kent Downs National Landscape. They created and installed an interpretation panel outside the station showing sights to explore and viewpoints to discover in the area. A key local attraction…
Great Coastal Railway Journeys Michael Portillo’s latest series of Great Coastal Railway Journeys sees him visit our Swale Rail Line on a trip from Faversham to Chatham. Swale, Queenborough and the Elmley National Nature Reserve feature in the episode, and Sittingbourne station gets a blink and you’ll miss it moment of fame. Some…
Annual Stakeholder Event 2024 Our event began with our stakeholders, partners and volunteers meeting at Maidstone West station for a trip north along our Medway Valley Line. As our train made its way north, Gary shared details of Kent Community Rail Partnership’s work both past and present at each of the stations that we…
Preserving the Tonbridge station subway mural Thanks to the efforts of Southeast Communities Rail Partnership and just £250 from Community Rail Network’s Small Grants Fund for England, a digital copy of the water-damaged Tonbridge Station mural will be printed onto Correx and installed in the waiting room – preserving the artwork for future passengers to enjoy.