News of Our Projects
As we develop, South Wessex Community Rail Partnership will undertake projects to the overall benefit of our communities in Somerset and Dorset.
Our remit is to carry out activities for the benefit of the communities along that portion of the railway line known as the Heart of Wessex Line which operates between Westbury Wiltshire and Weymouth Dorset line, and in particular but without limitation to encourage and promote increasing usage of public and sustainable transport for the benefit of people living in, working in or visiting the area surrounding that railway line.
We will, working with our neighbouring Community Rail Partnerships and with the guidance of the Community Rail Network
- Provide a voice for the local community and increase community involvement in the railway
- Promote rail as a sustainable, accessible, and healthy alternative means of travel substituting where possible for private car journeys though good integration with other means of transport so that the rail service meet the needs of local people businesses and visitors, providing value for money for passengers and benefitting the community.
- Bring together a diverse and inclusive range of communities as confident rail and public transport users.
- Support the social, economic and tourism potential of rail travel through attractive station facilities and visitor attractions and social enterprise development.
As well as routinely supporting the volunteers who selflessly give of their time and energy to keep our stations trim, neat and often colourful with flowers and plants, we will participate in and where of benefit fund specific activities which affect our communities along the railway and their relationship to it.
These activities can involve
- tidying the area surrounding a station
- working with pupils in local schools to help them appreciate the benefit, as well as the risks, of having access to the railway and encouraging them to make use of the railway when they can
- assisting in advocating through and with local authorities, Train Operating Companies and Network Rail and , in due course its successor Great British Railways, for better access to some of our stations, particularly the rural ones where the railway is, or has the capacity to become, a lifeline for the surrounding community, enhanced by everyone, including young families, older residents and the disabled being able to reach it.
Would you like to be one of our volunteers and help our communites in Somerset and Dorset? If so please get in touch with us through the contact form
Our First activities
We have already assisted Severnside Community Rail Partnership in the creation of a page for the entire Heart of Wessex Line on the Community Rail Network’s Scenic Rail Britain website and will progressively offer suggestions for updates of the information which concerns our part of the line.
Promotion of the Heart of Wessex Line
We have commenced work under a Memorandum of Understanding among Great Western Railways, Severnside CRP and TransWilts CRP to create a common marketing strategy for the whole Heart of Wessex Line, both to encourage its use by visitors and for residents along the line to make journeys they might otherwise undertake by car or to explore their local and neighbouring areas more widely.
Celebration Stations – Stations in Bloom
Most recently South Wessex CRP have collaborated with Blackmore Vale CRP on stations in Bloom. We went up the line from Dorchester West to Frome. It was so lovely to see how the volunteers had put so much time and effort in to get the stations looking so bright and colourful.
Wessex Wanderers
The Wessex Wanderer Rail Walks programme offers free public guided walks which start from stations on the line. The programme consists of circular and linear walks of various lengths to suit all tastes and take place from April to October each year.
Whether you are travelling north or south, the start time of the walks takes into account train times in both the directions. The walks are led by experienced members of the Ramblers from across the four Areas of the Ramblers covered by the line (Avon, Wiltshire & Swindon, Somerset and Dorset).
For more information, please visit their website – Wessex Wanderer Railway Walks (wessexrailwaywalks.org.uk)