The 15th annual Community Rail Awards celebrates community rail champions from across the nation

  • Rock Rail

This year’s Community Rail Awards, organised by the Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP), was attended by around 450 community rail volunteers, partnerships, rail industry leaders and government representatives.

The Community Rail Awards celebrate the passion and hard work of those involved in community rail as well as helping share good practice and championing community rail and its role in contributing to social inclusion, sustainable development and health and wellbeing.

Rock Rail is delighted to be continuing its support of the event, this year sponsoring the ‘Best Community Engagement Event’ category. Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership beat off strong competition to win the award in this category for their CreativiTea Trains initiative. The programme brought young and old from across the community together via tea parties on trains and included links to wider heritage projects about local history and culture and the history of the local railway.

This year’s event saw an exceptional range of innovative and inspiring community rail projects and schemes with over 200 entries across 15 award categories. West Yorkshire’s Mytholmroyd Station scooped the top award, Outstanding Contribution to Community Rail, on the showcase night for the community rail movement, with their programme of projects putting the station and railway back into the heart of their community.

Other category winners were:

  • Involving Children and Young People – Community Rail Lancashire for Stand Clear of the Closet Doors;
  • Involving Diverse Groups – Cumbrian Coast Line Community Rail Partnership for Broken Lives Mended;
  • Community Art Schemes – Permanent & Larger Projects – Friends of Rose Hill Station for Inter-generational Community Art Project;
  • Community Art Schemes – Renewable & Smaller – Penistone Line Partnership for Dwell Time;
  • Most Enhanced Station Buildings and Surroundings –Poacher Line Community Rail Partnership and The Bee Friendly Trust for Bottesford Friendly Garden;
  • Small Projects Award – Under £500 – Community Rail Lancashire for Bringing the Sunshine to Morecambe;
  • Best Community Engagement Event – Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership for CreativiTea Trains;
  • Best Marketing or Communications Campaign – Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership for Looe Valley Line Heritage Project;
  • Influencing Positive Change – Leeds-Moorcambe Community Rail Partnership, Northern and partners for Dementia and Community Rail;
  • Tourism & Heritage Award – Heart of Wales Line Development Company for Heart of Wales Line Trail
  • Photo & Video Competition | “Community Rail in Action” – Friends of Goostrey Station for “Enjoying a Break During Volunteer Working Party”
  • Outstanding Volunteer Contribution – Julie Gibbon, Tyne Valley Community Rail Partnerships Volunteer;
  • It’s Your Station – Friends of Hindley Station
  • ACoRP Award for Outstanding Contribution to Community Rail – Mytholmroyd Station Partenrship;
  • ACoRP Lifetime Achievement Award – Peter Roberts MBE.

 

Nick Watson, Commercial Director Rock Rail, attended the awards night and said:

“Rock Rail is delighted to be supporting the Community Rail Awards and joining all those involved in celebrating and congratulating the tremendous achievements of the many individuals, groups and organisations in benefiting their communities and local railways.

“As sponsors of the ‘Best Community Engagement Event’ award, Rock Rail is particularly pleased to congratulate the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership for their innovative and fun CreativiTeas initiative that helped re-engage local people of all ages with their railway.

“Rock Rail is committed to helping build a better rail industry and so is also pleased to be able to acknowledge the vital role of community rail groups in stimulating growth and shaping the rail industry to better serve communities across the country.”

 

For more information on each of the category winners please  click here.

To find out more about the Association of Community Rail Partnerships please click here.

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Driving Net Zero: How Rock Road 
Is Funding the UK’s Bus Transition

Accelerating the shift to clean, affordable, zero-emission transport

Year
2025
Category
Rock Road
Share

The Challenge

The UK bus network is at the heart of everyday travel – but over 30,000 diesel buses still need replacing to achieve a fully zero-emission fleet.

While around 5,000 battery-electric buses are already on the road, the high upfront cost of electric vehicles and depot electrification continues to slow the transition. Traditional funding routes — such as government grants or short-term bank finance – have helped start the journey but cannot support decarbonisation at the scale required.

A new, sustainable funding model was needed: one that could attract long-term capital, spread costs fairly, and give operators and authorities confidence in the future.

The Solution

In 2021, Rock launched Rock Road to deliver exactly that –  applying its proven infrastructure financing approach from the rail sector to the UK’s clean bus revolution.

Working with Aviva, the National Wealth Fund, and HSBC, Rock created a dedicated investment platform that channels infrastructure-style finance from pension funds and institutional investors directly into zero-emission bus projects.

This model provides:
  • Access to billions in long-term private capital for fleets and depot electrification.
  • Low-cost, sustainable finance tailored to public-sector needs.
  • Comprehensive risk transfer, including residual value and battery performance, supported by Rock’s in-house team of engineers and asset managers.

Impact

The platform has already raised £100 million, with capacity to scale to £1 billion per year over the next decade – providing a consistent source of affordable capital for local authorities and operators.

Rock’s model ensures that the total cost of ownership (TCO) of electric buses can now be lower than diesel equivalents, thanks to both cheaper long-term finance and reduced operating costs.

In London, Rock has financed 120 zero-emission buses under 7-year leases aligned with Transport for London’s contract lengths. This structure gives operators flexibility and certainty:

  • Buses can be returned, renewed, or upgraded at the end of term.
  • Lease rates are predictable and capped.
  • Ownership and residual risks sit with Rock, not the operator.

The Future

Rock Road’s ambition is to support the rollout of zero-emission fleets across the UK – helping local authorities and operators meet climate goals without overextending public budgets.

By leveraging limited government funding to attract large-scale private capital – for example, £10 million of public investment unlocking over £250 million in total funding – Rock’s model accelerates decarbonisation while keeping costs low for the public sector.

Our ambition is to make electric buses the default choice - not because of subsidy, but because they are the best economic and environmental option.
Louis Swindell
Commercial Director, Rock Road