From the consultation background document ...
6.2.6 Community Rail Partnerships
Community rail lines are local railways supported by a local partnership organisation who work with and engage local people, public authorities, volunteers and the rail industry in the development and promotion of rail services and stations.
The Government is currently reviewing the role of community rail partnerships and launched a consultation in 2017 to inform updated policy in this area, further details of which are expected later in 2018.
There are currently two community rail partnerships in Somerset covering the Severnside and Heart of Wessex lines. Currently only the Heart of Wessex line is formally designated by the Department for Transport as a community rail line. Other opportunities may also emerge, especially in the east of the County which is currently poorly served by rail transport.
The Council will maintain existing financial contributions to support the work of these partnerships.
Severnside Community Rail Partnership: This is a community interest group that works with local communities to encourage the use of local trains, ensure easy access to local stations and where possible enhance them. Somerset County Council is a principle partner and funder along with North East Somerset Council, Bristol City Council, North Somerset Council, South Gloucestershire Council, Great Western Railway and Cross Country Trains.
Heart of Wessex Community Rail Partnership: This partnership operates under a memorandum of understanding (from 2010) between Bath & North East Somerset Council, Bristol City Council, Dorset County Council, Somerset County Council, South Somerset District Council, West Dorset District Council, Wiltshire Council and Great Western Railways. The partnership aims to build the case for additional services on the line, promote use of the service, improve facilities, act as a community forum and involve communities in the provision and maintenance of facilities. This line is one of the 41 formally designated ‘community railways’ in the UK▸ .
I also heard comment that the document gave greater depth to the Taunton area than other parts of Somerset and so I did a very quick and unscientific search for the number of times various places were mentioned:
WomanWithCat:may18 grahamellis$ grep -ic Yeovil at
11
WomanWithCat:may18 grahamellis$ grep -ic Taunton at
23
WomanWithCat:may18 grahamellis$ grep -ic Bridgwater at
11
WomanWithCat:may18 grahamellis$ grep -ic Minehead at
2
WomanWithCat:may18 grahamellis$ grep -ic Wellington at
6
WomanWithCat:may18 grahamellis$ grep -ic Frome at
3
WomanWithCat:may18 grahamellis$ grep -ic Chard at
3
WomanWithCat:may18 grahamellis$ grep -ic Burnham at
1
I did not go too far with this out of area - having notes that a Ms Lucy Bath was one of the personnel concerned, with several mentions that would have skewed my results for her namesake city. I did not spot any biasing references to Taunton (e.g. addresses there to write to).
