Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership projects have been recognised at the national Community Rail Awards for their engagement with the local community and celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Railways.
Bishop Line CRP had three shortlisted projects, Bishop Line Secondary Schools Rail Safety and Careers Event 2025, Write on Track and Storylines.
The partnership was pleased to secure 2nd place in the Involving Young People Award, sponsored by LNER for the 2025 secondary schools event.
Bishop Line Secondary Schools Rail Safety & Careers Event 2025 was designed in response to an increase in youth trespass incidents around Darlington, Shildon and Newton Aycliffe during the school holidays. Bishop Line CRP engaged representatives from across the rail industry to design and deliver a two-day event aimed at improving awareness of rail safety and careers amongst young people. A post-event survey revealed that 97% of students said they had a better understanding of how to keep themselves safe around the railway, and 93% said they were more aware of the different training and career opportunities available across rail.
Rob McDonald, Vice Chair of the Bishop Line CRP commented “It was great to attend the Community Rail Awards. The enthusiasm and quality of the award winners is of a very high standard, so it was fantastic that three Bishop Line projects were recognised in the shortlists and our Rail Safety & Careers Event came second in a highly competitive category.”
Felicity Machnicki, Officer for the Bishop Line CRP added “This year’s Community Rail Awards event was bigger than ever with 600 attendees and 300 entries. It was wonderful to celebrate our three shortlisted projects and be joined by Sam Slatcher, producer of the Storylines Project and Ann Cuthbert co-producer of the Write on Track project with Pam Plumb. Celebrating the projects with the partners who make them happen is such a privilege and enables us to acknowledge the success of our collaboration in such an exciting and inspiring setting.”
More about the shortlisted projects:
Storylines was designed to raise awareness of the upcoming Stockton & Darlington 200th Anniversary Celebration; which would become the launch event for the Railway 200 campaign, amongst the local community, the wider region and beyond. Led by Sam Slatcher, local artists gathered memories and stories from rail passenger while travelling on the Bishop Line and wider historic S&DR route. Those memories were translated to artforms such as poetry, songs, illustrations and a play. Over the following 2 years the creative outputs from the project have been shared at many live events across the country, from local community events to national launches and celebrations, and viewed online. The stories, memories and voices from the communities along the S&DR and the beautiful interpretation of those memories as songs, poetry and illustrations now live on through celebratory films, posters, music, poetry and an album which will continue to inspire others long into the future, to remember and celebrate how the journey on the 27th September 1825 changed the world forever.
Write on Track started as a creative writing competition concept, but through partnership working and generous idea sharing, it grew into an impactful creative project celebrating the skills and creativity of local people along the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Over a few months 12 workshops were delivered in inspiring railway settings and on trains, resulting in around 100 entries into the competition categories of poetry, short story and memoir. All entries have been celebrated in one form or another. Winning entries are published in an anthology available online and to purchase in paperback, selected pieces have performed at live events at venues along the line and runners up entries are displayed at stations along the Bishop Line ensuring that all participants can see their work celebrated in print.
Further details of all the winners can be found at communityrail.org.uk/hall-of-fame/2026.
