GTR’s community project fund oversubscribed by £8 million in first year

• £500,000 ‘Your Station, Your Community’ fund attracts 370 bids totalling £8.5 million
• Train operator thanks local organisations for “magnificent response”
• Quality of applications “extremely high”

‘Your Station, Your Community’, the £500,000 annual social and environmental improvement fund set up by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), has been hugely oversubscribed, attracting more than £8.5 million in grant bids for its first year.

When the four-week window for grant applications closed at the end of July, over 370 projects had been submitted by organisations across the network, from Norfolk to the south coast. With bids limited to between £1,000 and £50,000, the average was around £20,000. The most popular issues addressed among GTR’s key community themes are mental health and diversity and inclusion.

GTR’s Chief Operating Officer Angie Doll said: “We’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to these bids for their hard work in producing this truly magnificent response. In the fund’s first year we weren’t sure we’d attract enough interest to invest all of the funding, but to be oversubscribed almost 20-fold shows the incredible energy, creativity and commitment our local communities possess.

“The standard of the applications has been extremely high in both quantity and quality, many from organisations we’d had little or no contact with before.

“It will be really hard to decide who the first winners are, as all the responses address important social needs. Unfortunately, we’ll only be able to help fund a fraction of the projects this year, so many excellent bidders will no doubt be disappointed, and I would encourage them to try again next year.

“I would also like to thank our existing partners such as the community rail partnerships and tourism partners, who have done a brilliant job spreading the word across our network.”

GTR will now assess the applications, working with passenger watchdog Transport Focus as an independent representative of the customer voice. Bids will be scored according to social value, stakeholder support, feasibility and demonstrable outcomes. GTR will follow up bids for over £10,000 with a discussion by telephone. 

Shortlisted schemes will be sent for approval to the Department for Transport before the end of the year. Successful applicants will be notified in March 2023, with the aim that their projects will start the following month. 

Ends 

Notes to editors 

Your Station, Your Community improvement fund: selection process and key themes 

The application guide and form were available for five weeks on the Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern websites; further information is available from community@gtrailway.com.  

Applications will be scored according to social value, stakeholder support, feasibility and demonstrable outcomes. GTR will follow up bids for over £10,000 with a discussion by telephone. 

To make the fund as widely available as practical, and maximise its impact across GTR’s network, bids will be considered for a minimum of £1,000 and a maximum of £50,000, to pump-prime, match-fund or contribute to suitable projects.  

Applications should be for projects that require one-off funding, or will become self-funding, rather than long-term financial support from the Fund, such as for the employment of staff beyond a fixed period. 

Applicants need to show how their scheme strengthens links between the GTR network and the communities it serves. They should provide evidence of how their scheme would address an area of social need and serve and engage with the community. Clear plans for delivering the project should include accurate costs, timescales and assurances about any consents or permissions needed from other organisations. 

The fund aims to address challenges and issues that are important to our local communities and the railway: 

Positive Mental Health 

Mental health activities that encourage working with local partners to signpost people to support services or initiatives that have a positive impact on people’s wellbeing. Connecting people together to take positive action, for instance to prevent suicide, an issue that has devastating and far-reaching impact on our people, customers and communities. 

Diversity and Inclusion 

Supporting diverse and inclusive community projects, creating opportunities for learning and the social mobility of more marginalised groups. Our ambition is to create an inclusive culture where customers and colleagues feel able to be themselves and feel they belong to their local communities. 

Employability and confidence building 

Promoting employability and education amongst marginalised groups by investing in the skills development for now and the future, creating a talent pipeline to support the South East economy. 

Environmental Sustainability 

Supporting environmental projects and encouraging sustainable mobility shift to encourage customers to make greener choices to travel by rail and getting to our stations sustainably - by bike, bus, foot or electric car. 

Enhancing our stations to be a welcoming environment  

Regenerating redundant station spaces for community hubs, providing space for activities that enrich the local community and bring station estate back into use. Creating a welcoming ambiance at our stations, enhancing our customers’ experience.