The Bishop Line is the railway line which runs between Bishop Auckland and Darlington. The Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership aims to represent the communities which the Bishop Line serves and works to provide a rail service which truly meets our communities’ needs.
Connecting the communities along the Bishop Line is what we’re all about.
To do this we work in several ways.
Working with partners we deliver projects in the community, great examples of our recent projects are Shildon Smart Art and Storylines.
We work within local schools and with partners to deliver rail skills and safety training.
We encourage members of the public to ‘adopt your station’ and help bring life back into your station.
We work with the train operating company Northern to provide a rail service which truly meets our communities’ needs and we need to hear the views of our community to help do that.
The partnership is supported by a steering group who help guide our work by prioritising projects according to local needs, enabling progress on projects by connecting people and ensuring that the work we deliver strives to achieve the pillars of the DfT community rail strategy. Our steering group is composed of the two local authorities – Darlington Borough Council and Durham County Council, all of the train operating companies which our local residents can access – Northern, LNER, Cross Country, and TransPennine Express along with Network Rail and the Community Rail Network.
The Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership has been successfully accredited by the Department for Transport every year since the introduction of the accreditation scheme in 2019. Accreditation is formal recognition by the DfT that a CRP operates to a high standard and that its objectives and activities are supported by Government. It is in place to provide assurance to others, including potential funders and partners, that the Bishop Line CRP operates to high standards of governance and financial propriety; adopts a collaborative approach; is worthy of trust by others; and is a suitable entity for receiving public funds. Further Government considers it a good representative of the local community.
