In March, over 500 guests were welcomed to the Newcastle Civic Centre to celebrate a milestone 20th anniversary Community Rail Awards.
Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership walked away with two awards on the evening, celebrating a first-place success in the Tourism and Leisure category and second place in Involving Children and Young People.
For the Tourism and Leisure award, Bishop Line CRP were recognised for their excellent work in delivering the ‘Explore the Bishop Line by Train’ campaign during the summer of 2024. The project focussed on delivering a tourism marketing campaign to increase awareness of how many attractions along their line are easily accessible by rail.
Supported by CrossCountry, the campaign was executed through print, digital and social media, featuring spotlights on six different attractions and calls-to-action for interested visitors. In nearly a month, ticket sales to Shildon Station, serving Locomotion, increased by 157%.
Bishop Line CRP’s second place project was a Rail Education Programme which was delivered by a dedicated education officer, who provided a series of accessible and interactive rail safety workshops, assemblies and resources for local schools.