Where does the idea of community railways come from?
The Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP) actively promotes the partnership principal on the national network. Their activities cover the full range of community rail partnerships and station adoption groups. Over the years, they have looked at a number of overseas models of community based rail activity and promoted these ideas in the UK. The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) built upon the practical experience of a number of well established UK partnerships and the ideas promoted by ACoRP to develop their strategy for community railways. The development of the strategy showed a group of lines and services that are important to the communities they serve, and with considerable potential for development. Research by the Institute of Chartered Accountants shows that three-quarters of their members thought their local railway was important to the business economy of their region, while two-thirds said they were reliant on their local rail service – the same weight as they put o
