Rehoming Abandoned Bikes with Maidstone CAN and Making a Difference to Maidstone Earlier this year, Taylor Edwards at Southeastern introduced us to a pile of abandoned bikes in storage at Maidstone West station. In years gone by, these were passed on to the YMCA at Tonbridge, to support a scheme to allow young people to…
Paddock Wood Station’s Birthday Celebrations, 28th August 2025 Railway 200 continues to see us mark our station’s birthdays, bringing Community Rail to the attention of more people in the communities where we work. It was an early start, Southeastern’s Paddock Wood station team wanted to ensure the celebrations could be enjoyed by both their regular…
Ashford Depot Open Day, Sunday 24 August 2025 Southeastern’s Exclusive Railway 200 Depot Open Day celebrated 200 years of the passenger railway in the UK; Southeastern opened the doors to their train maintenance depot in Ashford for one very special day. The unique event was hosted by the Southeastern engineering team. Chris Anthony, Dominic…
Supporting the Muslim Hikers along the North Downs Way, Wye to Canterbury, Sat 16th August 2025 Kent CRP regularly works in collaboration with Kent Downs National Lanscape’s ‘Putting Down Routes’ project, to bring under-represented groups into the Kent Downs, grow sustainable tourism to the area, and extend the typical summer tourist season to all year…
Medway’s Life In Miniature Join us on Wednesday 17th September at Medway Archives Centre to celebrate Railway 200 at the Medway’s life in miniature exhibition. A number of local groups and organisations are also attending, including: Chatham and District Model Railway Club Medway Aircraft Preservation Society the Guildhall Museum Medway Queen Preservation Society Medway Model…
Black Girls Hike Guided Walk, Saturday 26th July Working in collaboration with Kent Downs National Lanscape’s ‘Putting Down Routes’ project, Kent CRP undertook rail safety training and a guided walk on the Kent Downs Way for Black Girls Hike. Together we aim to bring more sustainable tourism to the area and extend the typical summer…
Maidstone River Festival, 26th July 2025 Following an invitation from the Rotary Club of Maidstone, we set up a promotional stall in the gardens of the Archbishop’s Palace at the Maidstone River Festival. We had leaflets for Railcards, Accessible Travel Services, walking and cycling maps of Kent towns, a wide range of walks from the…
Inspiration – The Railway 200 Exhibition Train Margate 20-21 July 2025 The Railway 200 exhibition train, Inspiration, visited Margate station 20-21 July, an unique exhibition train, part of a national celebration of the 200th anniversary of the modern railway. In addition to the train’s exhibition carriages, a special event at Margate station saw Kent CRP…
South Eastern Railway Stakeholder Forum, 15th July 2025 We were delighted to accept an invitation to attend the South Eastern Railway Stakeholder Forum on Tuesday 15th July, to hear updates and announcements from Southeastern and Network Rail about their integrated working group. Please find below a summary of our notes from the meeting. ….
A special Announcement from Southeastern – South Eastern Railway We’re delighted to be able to share that Great British Railways (GBR) has now moved one step closer for passengers in the South East with the formation of a single leadership team accountable for the railway’s performance across track and train. Southeastern and Network Rail Kent…
Train Travel Training and Sustainable Tourism Guided Walk Charing to Lenham, 5 June 2025 Working in collaboration with Kent Downs National Lanscape’s ‘Putting Down Routes’ project, Kent CRP undertook train travel training and a guided this walk on the Kent Downs Way for 9 English for Speakers of Other Languages students and 3 of…
Celebrating Strood Station’s 169th Birthday On Wednesday 18th June we joined Southeastern to celebrate Strood station’s 169th birthday. School groups from St James the Great Academy and laddingford School were treated to free pencils, rulers and other goodies from the Southeastern and Kent Community Rail Partenership stalls. The fun atmosphere continued throughout the afternoon,…
Snodland Station Garden and Allotment – June 2025 Update Today we visited the Snodland allotment site to see the clearance work undertaken by Network Rail in preparation for Five Acre Wood (Snodland) bringing this space into use as an allotment and outdoor learning area from September. We then moved on to undertake some weeding around…
Maidstone’s Big Day Out Rail Ramble, Saturday 14th June 2025 Working in collaboration with Maidstone’s Big Day Out, Kent CRP guided this walk along the river Medway from Wateringbury into the town centre, one of many events taking place that day to celebrate Maidstone’s Big Day Out. At the station another group of around…
Department for Transport confirms our Accredited Community Rail Partnership status. We are delighted to announce that the Department for Transport has renewed their accreditation of the Kent Community Rail Partnership. Accreditation is formal recognition by the DfT that Kent Community Rail Partnership operates to a high standard and that its objectives and activities are supported…
Award for Paws on the Platform An amazing afternoon spent with the wonderful Guide Dog volunteers at their annual award ceremony in Kent on Friday 30th May. Our collaborative Paws on the Platform event highlighting the difficulties partially sighted passengers encounter when travelling by rail achieved second place – well done all!
National Safeguarding Conference 2025 Safeguarding our Railway Kent Community Rail Partnership were honoured to be invited to the National Safeguarding Conference 2025 on Thursday, 29th May where leading figures from policing, transport and youth services will gathered to address some of the most urgent challenges facing passengers and staff across Britain’s rail network. Hosted…
Celebrating Tonbridge Station’s 183rd Birthday On Thursday 22nd May, we joined Southeastern, Southeast Communities CRP and The Oaks Specialist College to celebrate Tonbridge station’s 183rd birthday and Community Rail Week. Our stall had promotional materials for our projects and activites, tote bags, pens and other freebies to help us engage with passengers as they passed…
Rail Safety sessions with Leigh Academy at Paddock Wood station, Thursday 15th May We were delighted to join Daniel Rushbrook, station manager, to welcome three groups of Year 3 young learners from Leigh Academy to Paddock Wood station. Year 3 are learning about the key features of their community and how it has changed…
New Station Adopters For Maidstone West We are delighted to announce that Maidstone CAN (Climate Action Network) have signed up to adopt Maidstone West station under Southeastern’s station adoption scheme and will be joining Community Rail Network as a station adoption group. This will build upon the legacy of Ian Paterson and his family,…