Monday 19 Aug 2024
Volunteer organisations urged to apply for TRU grants
- Region & Route:
- Eastern
Have you got a fantastic idea to boost your community but need some cash to make it happen? Well, the TRU Community Fund might be the answer that you’re looking for.
The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is pleased to announce that the application window for medium grants (£5000 - £20,000) as part of its newly launched community fund is now open from today (Monday 19 August).
The fund gives local community groups, schools and charities the opportunity to apply for grants to create or enhance community-focused facilities across TRU’s 70-mile route.
Interested parties can follow this link to find out more details and apply: Transpennine Route Upgrade Community Fund | www.gmcvo.org.uk
Small grants (£1000 - £5000) are also available as part of the £175,000 fund, as the application window opened two weeks ago (Monday 5 August).
A range of projects have already been put forward in the applications for small grants, including a sensory garden, a community allotment and an improvement to a community hub space.
Jamie McKinnon, Social Value Manager for the Transpennine Route Upgrade, said:
“We’re delighted to have already received a combined total of over 90 enquiries and applications for the small grants round since it opened at the start of August.
“With the medium grants round now opening today, we’d encourage as many local groups, charities and schools to put forward their proposals for community projects to ensure that they don’t miss out on this great opportunity for funding.”
The initiative is part of TRU’s Sustainability & Social Value strategy – Our Guiding Compass – which aims to drive real, long-term benefits in the towns and communities that the project is operating in over the next decade.
TRU will also be offering volunteering support to successful recipients of the fund, as part of a target to deliver 25,000 volunteering hours in the local community.
You can hear more about positive initiatives being undertaken by TRU in local communities along the route in the video below:
Notes to Editors
About Transpennine Route Upgrade
We’re transforming journeys across the North, better connecting towns and cities through more frequent, faster trains, running on a cleaner, greener and more reliable railway.
TRU will bring passengers:
- More trains to choose from and more seats. Our improvements will enable more trains to run between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York with up to six fast services every hour between Leeds and Manchester and up to two stopping services for local connectivity.
- Faster journeys so you can travel to your favourite towns and cities more quickly. Our fastest journey times are forecast to be 63-66 minutes between Manchester and York and 41-42 minutes between Manchester and Leeds.
- More reliable journeys with trains that run on-time.
- Better stations across the Transpennine route, bringing passengers a better travel experience through improved, more accessible stations.
- Greener travel, reducing our carbon footprint and improving air quality. Our plans aim to save up to 87,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year. We’re also developing a proposal to move more goods by rail (up to 15 more freight trains each day).
- Together, these freight trains are expected to remove over 1,000 lorries off the road each day.
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.
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