Tyne Valley Community Rail Partnership (TVCRP) is a not for profit company limited by guarantee. Our Board of ten Directors are all volunteers and we employ one officer for 30 hours a week. We promote communities between Newcastle and Carlisle, and encourage rail travel.
We work closely with various partners in the rail industry and our communities and undertake a number of projects. There are over 60 Community Rail Partnership across the UK working to the Department for Transport's Community Rail Strategy. This means we provide a voice for the community, work to make rail travel accessible, work to increase economic development amongst our communities and help to ensure that rail travel is inclusive to all.
Tyne Valley Community Rail Partnership was the first Community Rail Partnership to receive Department for Transport Accreditation in the Northern area. This quality mark recognises Community Rail Partnerships who display good governance.
Our base is the Old Booking Hall at Haltwhistle. We bring school groups here by rail (free of charge) to learn about rail safety, tickets, maps, bridges and explore the area. The building is used by community groups and, in normal times, we open it to the public each year during Heritage Open Days.
As an indication of our work, here are some of the projects which we have been working on this year.
At the beginning of the year we launched Open in Winter a project in which we worked with five communities along the line and local businesses to promote the area. We took a TVCRP stand to three stations which were in ‘day out territory’ to promote the area.
As lockdown was underway we have worked with a singer songwriter to facilitate what passengers thought about getting back on trains.
Work started in September 2020 on the wooden buildings on each platform at Haltwhistle. TVCRP have driven this £500,000 project drawing down funding from community funds within the rail industry. The completed work will create improved waiting areas and studio/office space for rent. This is a large project for us and we look forward to welcoming tenants.
Our work with the train operator Northern and volunteers at each of the stations continues and we work to improve station environments. Recently, the volunteers at Blaydon commissioned murals for the walls on each platform, receiving praise from near and far.
