Heritage and Community Rail Tourism Innovation Competition Brief
Introduction
In 2014, over half of all money spent by inbound tourists to England, was spent in London. However the rest of the country has
many fantastic tourist attractions and a key objective for this competition is to encourage more tourists to travel beyond the capital
to destinations outside of London.
Heritage and community railways are an important part of this sector. Every year 10 million people visit a heritage railway. It has
been estimated that heritage railways are worth about £250 million to the UK economy. Community rail lines account for around 40
million journeys per year. 45% growth has been seen between 2006/7 and 2012/13 in community rail. They are often rural based
and many support the tourism industry of these areas.
The Prime Minister announced in 2015 that £1 million would be made available for a rail for tourism innovation competition, funded
by the Department for Transport.
This competition seeks to support more visitors discovering the UK outside of London with heritage and community rail.
This competition provides an opportunity specifically to heritage railways and community rail partnerships to improve the
tourist experience.
Scope
The scope of the competition is to support innovative approaches to improving the tourist experience offered by heritage and
community railways. Within the scope of this competition, but not limited to the following, are projects that:
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Explore new ways to improve travel to these railways by public transport by:
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Explore options to introduce new services
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improving stations
improving ticketing
special offers
disabled access or cycle facilities.
Explore the introduction of new rolling stock
Trial innovative approaches to attracting tourists outside London (particularly overseas tourists).
Out of scope – for this competition the refurbishment of engines will lie outside of the scope.
It is anticipated that successful projects will increase patronage, increase customer satisfaction, improve access by public transport,
and benefit local economies outside London. Projects can be stand alone or collaborative. Projects that collaborate with local
authorities, national or local tourism organisations, train operating companies or heritage railway or community railway associations
will be welcomed. Projects that can start before June 1st will be viewed favourably.
Application process
To be eligible to apply, applicants must first register their interest in the competition and receive the full application pack. The
application form is 2 pages long.
Applications will only be accepted from organisations that have registered, the deadline for applications is 5pm on
4th April.
Competition Brief
Up to 15 applicants will be invited to a “Dragons' Den” style event on 10th May at the Department for Transport to pitch their ideas
to a panel of judges. Applicants not able to attend the event on 10th May will not be eligible for funding.
Applicants will be informed by April 22nd if they are required to attend the event.
Key dates
Call for proposals opens
Registration closes
Deadline for entries
Applicants invited to event
Dragons' Den Event
Winners announcement
Tuesday 1st March
Wednesday 23rd March (5pm)
Monday 4th April (5pm)
Friday 22nd April
Tuesday 10th May
To follow
To receive a full application pack and to register your interest in the competition please go to:
http://www.cvent.com/d/1fqlmw