Community Rail Week 2026
The East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership, Greater Anglia and Community Rail partners across East Anglia are celebrating national Community Rail Week 2026 with a series of events across Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, showcasing how local railways help connect communities and create “Journeys for All”.
Running from Monday 1 to Sunday 7 June, Community Rail Week highlights the work of community rail partnerships, volunteers and local organisations in making rail travel more inclusive, accessible and welcoming for everyone.
Across East Anglia, community rail partnerships will host exhibitions, heritage activities, surveys, station events, volunteer gatherings and public engagement initiatives designed to encourage more people to travel by train and discover the social, environmental and economic benefits of rail.
The week also reflects Greater Anglia’s wider work with community rail and rail industry partners to help create a more joined-up railway across the region, connecting people with education, employment, leisure opportunities and local communities.
In Suffolk, the East Suffolk Community Rail Partnership will engage directly with passengers through surveys at Saxmundham station and onboard East Suffolk Line services, helping to better understand commuting and leisure travel patterns. The partnership will also promote sustainable rail travel to employees at Suffolk County Council at Endeavour House in Ipswich.
During the week, the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership will host a Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth railway exhibition at Gorleston Library, and a reunion event for WW2 evacuees at Lowestoft station with special guest, author and illustrator, Martin Impey. Community rail representatives will also promote integrated rail and bus travel opportunities, new line guides and timetables at Lowestoft station.
A key highlight of the week will be a “Try a Train” heritage visit for schoolchildren travelling between March and Ely on Wednesday 3 June, organised by the Hereward Community Rail Partnership.
The confidence-building journey will help young people gain experience using rail services, while learning about the important railway heritage of March as a historic railway town. The event reflects this year’s “Journeys for All” theme by helping people of all backgrounds and ages feel more confident using public transport.
The Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership will hold a series of public engagement events across the county, including at South Woodham Ferrers, Chelmsford, Billericay, Braintree and Clacton.
Activities will promote leisure travel opportunities on the Crouch Valley, Sunshine Coast, Flitch and Southend lines, while gathering passenger feedback on future rail services. The partnership will also host its annual Cockney Sing-along train on the Sunshine Coast Line on Friday evening.
The Bittern and Wherry Lines teams will promote rail travel at London Liverpool Street and at Greater Anglia’s Crown Point Depot Open Day event.
In Cambridgeshire and along the Hereward Line, community rail representatives will join regional rail industry events further afield at Nottingham and Sheffield stations to promote rail tourism, walking and cycling opportunities and days out by rail to destinations including Stamford and Peterborough.
The Hereward Community Rail Partnership will also host its twice-yearly volunteer meeting in the town of March, bringing together station adopter volunteers and community supporters.
Meanwhile, the St Edmund’s Line Community Rail Partnership will be holding a community engagement event at Soham Library from 9am-12pm on 4 June and the Cam Valley Community Rail Partnership will celebrate local railway heritage and volunteer contributions with the unveiling of new Railway 200 history boards at Meldreth station.
Alan Neville, Greater Anglia’s Customer and Community Engagement Manager, said:
“Community Rail Week is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the enormous contribution that community rail partnerships, volunteers and local organisations make across our network.
“Their work helps make rail travel more accessible, inclusive and welcoming, while connecting people with education, employment, leisure opportunities and each other.
“As we continue working more closely with rail industry partners across the wider railway in Anglia, community rail has an important role to play in helping make public transport feel more connected, more local and more relevant to the communities we serve.”