Thursday 2 Jul 2026
TRU celebrates successful Community Fund projects across route
- Region & Route:
- Eastern
The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is showcasing some of the organisations from its 2025 Community Fund round, who have used their grants to improve local spaces and places.
Launched in 2024, the TRU Community Fund aims to help local community groups, schools and charities to create or enhance community-focused facilities across the 70-mile route. The second iteration in 2025 saw 35 successful applicants offered small, medium and large grants of £1000, £5000, £10,000 and £20,000 to fund their chosen projects.
A number of successful applicants have now completed their projects, with the results already being felt in their local communities.
Rise in Unity youth hub in Huddersfield provides a safe space for local young people to take part in its martial arts, mentoring and wellbeing sessions. Following Harpreet Uppal MP’s presentation of a £10,000 cheque back in December, the organisation have completed work on a brand-new kitchen and dining area.
In Leeds, Monk Fryston School have constructed a new bike shelter to store pupils’ bikes and encourage a more active way of travelling. The project aims to reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality, and ease congestion around the school, while promoting active, healthy lifestyles and improving safety for pupils and families. The new shelters provide weatherproof, secure storage at both main entrances, making sustainable travel easier and safer.
The Barn in Tadcaster is a youth and community centre for everyone living and working in Tadcaster and its nearby villages, promoting the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the area. Through a £5,000 TRU Community Fund grant, they’ve been able to fully upgrade their kitchen facilities.
Further completed projects also include a new Family Support & Wellbeing Hub created by Family Unit Trust, new equipment for community cookery classes at Tameside Meals Seva Group, accessibility and facility improvements at Booth Centre’s Three Bees Community Café, and the expansion of Bee Together Community Centre & Garden’s community growing programme.
Anna Humphires, TRU head of sustainability and social value, said:
“The TRU Community Fund gives us the chance to leave a lasting legacy in the area we serve as a programme, but away from the tracks. I’m delighted to see the progress being made by a number of last year’s successful recipients and the positive impact they are having on their communities.
“We’re looking forward to launching our third iteration this year and seeing new organisations from across our route realise the benefits of this initiative.”
The TRU Community Fund will return later in 2026, giving more local organisations along the route the chance to apply for a grant and enhance their community spaces. Further details on how to apply will be announced in due course. In the meantime, interested applicants can visit the TRU Community Fund webpage for the latest updates.
Notes to Editors
The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is a multi-billion-pound railway programme that will transform journeys across the North, better connecting towns and cities like Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York.
TRU fast facts
- 25% of the route is now electrified, with electric train services now running between Manchester and Stalybridge, and York and Church Fenton
- Once complete, TRU aims to halve the time lost to delays
- There are currently 70 worksites across the 70-mile route
- TRU will deliver:
- The full electrification of the line
- Double the amount of tracks in key locations, allowing fast trains to overtake stopping services
- Implement digital signalling to increase speed and capacity
- Improve all 23 stations on the route, supporting accessibility
- TRU has over 5000 staff, with 85% coming from within 40 miles of the route – TRU will have created over 8000 jobs across the duration of the programme
- TRU is expanding freight provision, opening 15 extra freight paths and widening tunnels so shipping containers can travel between ports on the east and west coasts via rail, removing over 1000 lorries a day from the busy roads across the Pennines
Key milestones to date
- New station built at Mirfield
- New station built at Morley
- Introduction of a fully accessible platform 2 at Castleford station to support diverted services between York and Manchester
- £100m upgrade of diversionary routes completed ahead of major works across the Transpennine Route, increasing railway resilience
- Upgrade of Hope Valley line complete, with a second platform built at Dore & Totley, as well as 1km of additional track at Bamford to reduce bottlenecks
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Ewan Bayliss
Communications Executive
Network Rail
ewan.bayliss@networkrail.co.uk
About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk