By Civil Service World

03 Apr 2013

The transport department's Community Rail Ambassador Project won the Understanding and Engaging with Communities award in the Diversity and Equality Awards for their work encouraging disadvantaged groups to make better use of rail travel. Civil Service World finds out more


Social exclusion takes many forms, but in parts of North-West England the train operator Northern Rail had become aware just how few people from particular sections of the community were using rail travel.  Passenger numbers were "below what they should be" in areas of high unemployment and among black and minority ethnic (BME) groups, according to Colette Fowler, a spokeswoman for Northern Rail.

"The railway is at the doorstep of many of these communities but it is under-utilised by many of them," says Kulvinder Bassi, leader of the Department for Transport’s Community Rail Team. "The main problem was one of perception: they didn't know the railway was there, they thought it was too expensive, and women thought it was unsafe."

Northern Rail, DfT and other agencies, including Lancashire County Council and Transport for Greater Manchester, targeted four stations in an attempt to improve rail use among their ethnically-diverse local populations: Blackburn, Rochdale, Brierfield and Farnworth.

Bassi visited the areas and began to understand how increasing rail use could bring additional benefits for some groups: the road network was well developed and "people had good quality cars". Yet, looking more closely, he identified a high level of dependence: many people had to be driven around rather than drive themselves.

As for raising awareness, Fowler, who worked alongside Bassi, says it quickly became apparent "traditional methods - posters and leaflets - didn't really seem to have an impact, so we thought we had to do something a bit different."

DfT provided £30,000 in funding to cover the first year, and the partners appointed four community ambassadors who each worked 16 hours a week, overseen by a full-time project officer. They spoke Urdu, Hindi or Punjabi and approached Asian women’s groups, carers’ groups, those with learning disabilities, parent/toddler groups, old people’s homes, job clubs and schools. "We wanted ambassadors from these communities, so that we could hit the ground running and get people engaged quickly," says Bassi. "We call these communities 'hard to reach', but they're not - you just have to reach them in a different way."

The ambassadors took groups on day trips, walking them to the station, buying tickets and taking a rail journey, pointing out the CCTV, brightly-lit paths and easy ways to contact rail staff. Since the scheme launched in early 2011, the ambassadors have taken more than 1,700 people on such trips and spoken to more than 150 local groups. Rail usage at the targeted locations has grown by 14 per cent, with half of this growth directly attributed to the ambassadors. New users have usually come from the C2DE social grades, are mostly female and mainly from BME communities.

One striking outcome of the project was greater use of rail among the residents of women’s refuges. "People in these situations often feel very isolated because of their life history. The fact that someone is prepared to go out with them and show them how to use the trains makes a difference," says Bassi.

The scheme has been extended to lines between Burnley, Rochdale, Bolton and Blackburn, while rail firm First Great Western has sent staff to observe the scheme with a view to replicating it in Devon and Cornwall.

The scheme has not been without its hiccups. The project looked initially at improving rail travel in six locations, but was quickly reduced to a more manageable four "so we could really focus on them," says Bassi. "You need to claw back some aspirations."

Bassi also advises that private company jitters about investing in such schemes mean that government departments need to be prepared to pay for additional work. "We can come at this from the perspective of doing stuff for the greater social benefit," says Bassi, "but the fundamental driver for commercial companies is to get a return on their money. You have to pump-prime some elements. We needed additional research, and we accepted we had to pay for that."

Fundamental to the success of any such project is community engagement, and both Northern Rail and DfT feel they achieved this. "You have to recruit from the community you are targeting. The knowledge of rail travel among ambassadors was not so important; you can teach that more easily than you can break into the community," says Fowler.

Northern Rail will shortly publish a best practice booklet on its experiences and Fowler feels the project has been overwhelmingly positive, though she too feels all parties need to recognise the differences between public and private perspectives.  "A lot of the dealings come down to the individuals you are working with. There  are potentially good commercial benefits, but there are also challenges. You have to view the projects in the round.

"A private company can't build a business case around taking a group of school children on a train and showing them how to travel around.  You need to look at the wider context: that perhaps one positive experience might mean those children use train travel for work or leisure for the rest of their lives."

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