Greater Anglia is inviting submissions for its 2025 Customer and Community Improvement Fund, designed to support local, community-focused rail improvements across its network. From small scale station enhancements to integrated transport projects, schemes to introduce new or disadvantaged groups to rail travel, education projects, biodiversity projects, arts or heritage schemes or new ways of promoting services amongst local communities, a wide range of ideas will be eligible for funding. The key requirement is that ideas benefit both the community and the railway.
Year 1 of the initiative, which was first launched in 2024, was a great success, with 34 projects approved and delivered across the Greater Anglia network, ranging from support for a community station building restoration project at Alresford in Essex, to a scheme to install defibrillators at all stations on the Ipswich to Felixstowe/Lowestoft lines in Suffolk, to a study to look at improved walking and cycling routes to Brundall Gardens and Brundall in Norfolk, to an enhanced website for the Hereward Community Rail Partnership in Cambridgeshire promoting the Ely to Peterborough route, and a community-developed mosaic for Rye House station in Hertfordshire.
As with the initial year of the scheme, £350,000 will be allocated to projects across the Greater Anglia network. Once again, there is no set or preferred value for the amount of funding being requested for each individual project put forward. However, the maximum value of an application that would be considered would be £50,000, with an aim of supporting a spread of schemes across the region. The higher the bid, the greater the scale of the benefits that would be sought and it is expected that most projects will be smaller scale (and cost between £500 and £20,000).
This scheme is aimed at supporting initiatives which deliver community benefits and enhance rail’s positive role in society. Ideas proposed can be put forward by local organisations or bodies, such as community rail partnerships, station adopters, local authorities or parish councils, community groups, charities, or other stakeholders along the routes served by the train operator.
Jonathan Denby, Head of Corporate Affairs, for Greater Anglia, said:
“We are always looking to enhance the role of the railway in support of the communities it serves. The first year of our Customer and Community Improvement Fund was a great success, with an impressive mix of projects put forward and delivered to the benefit of customers, communities, and the railway right across the Greater Anglia network.
“We look forward to the second year of this really positive scheme resulting in more locally focused enhancements in line with community needs, with ideas coming from both community rail partnerships and station adopters, but also other local organisations, such as local authorities, parish councils, charities, or other stakeholders.”
Greater Anglia is especially interested in projects which meet one or more of the following aims, which are to:
benefit rail customers
increase rail travel
trial or promote rail with individuals or groups who are not currently rail users
encourage carbon reduction and/or biodiversity
promote inclusion and diversity
make rail travel more accessible
support integrated transport links
improve stations or station facilities in ways that complement their role as gateways to the local communities
connect communities, people, and places
provide educational programmes that support careers in rail or increase awareness and experience of public transport and rail safety
address local social needs
enhance health and wellbeing
support economic growth
The type of specific initiatives which might be supported include:
Small scale schemes to provide new, upgraded, or restored station facilities
Signage and wayfinding schemes
Better information provision
Educational, art, history, or heritage projects
Biodiversity or carbon reduction programmes
Better integrated transport facilities (or walking or cycling routes)
Improving inclusion and diversity for those who work within or use the rail network
Promoting rail amongst under-represented groups
Research projects that might support future rail improvements
Other proposals which build or strengthen links between communities and their railways
There could be other ideas or proposals, as long as they are consistent with the aims previously outlined and provide a clear benefit for the local community and/or rail customers.
Full details, including bid eligibility and criteria, are available on the Greater Anglia website and bids must be submitted online using the online form at www.greateranglia.co.uk/ccif by 23.59 on Friday 23 May 2025. Proposals must be deliverable by 31 March 2026, be focused only on the Greater Anglia network area and have a lasting positive impact for communities and the railway in the region.
