Media centre

Wednesday 4 Jun 2025

Volunteers’ Week: putting the hours in

Region & Route:

Eastern

To mark Volunteers’ Week, the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) reflects on its progress towards a long-term goal of carrying out 25,000 hours of volunteering by 2035, having already delivered 75% of that total.

Since 2019, TRU employees have completed over 18,700 hours of volunteering as part of the programme’s commitment to working with its communities – a fundamental aspect of the TRU Sustainable Development strategy – to develop job skills and shape public spaces alongside the people that use them.

TRU’s volunteering opportunities are targeted at locations which are experiencing higher levels of deprivation, ensuring efforts are focused on disadvantaged communities where support is most needed and can have the greatest impact. This approach helps ensure work is community-led and responsive to local priorities.

TRU volunteers have attended over 780 events across the programme footprint with schools, colleges and universities to promote a range of initiatives, such as the importance of safety and careers in the rail industry. Over 60,000 children have been engaged in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) events as part of TRU’s inclusive education programme that aims to inspire the next generation to explore career opportunities in rail.

Volunteering partnerships with a range of community groups and charities has meant TRU presence at over 340 events helping transform outdoor spaces and recreational facilities. One organisation the programme has teamed up with extensively is Canal & River Trust. The programme has sponsored a section of Lock 2 at Deighton – a stretch of canal that runs almost parallel to part of the Transpennine route – and has delivered a total of 213 days of volunteering work clearing vegetation, painting, litter picking and more across four Canal & River Trust sites.

 

Anna Humphries, TRU Head of Sustainability and Social Value, said:

“As a programme, we’re really proud of what we’ve achieved in the communities in which we operate and our volunteering is an integral part of that.

“The numbers speak for themselves and we are committed as ever to reaching the long-term targets we have set. Our volunteering makes a difference in places all over the North, and helps ensure TRU leaves a lasting legacy beyond upgrading the railway.

“We’re also looking forward to launching the second iteration of the TRU Community Fund this year, which we hope will once again act as a catalyst for delivering further volunteering opportunities close to our worksites and for supporting projects that regenerate spaces and places.”

 

An example of where TRU will leave a lasting legacy is at Kirk Fenton CE Primary School in North Yorkshire, where volunteers helped with the development of their forest school – a project centred around outdoor learning and interaction with the natural environment by using the forest as a classroom.

The forest school enables students to acquire key skills through outdoor activities such as building tents, safely making fires, cooking and exploring wildlife, and is particularly beneficial for children that struggle in traditional classroom settings with a focus on nurturing self-esteem, creativity and holistic learning.

Across the nine-day transformation, TRU’s volunteers totalled 376 hours of work at the site on a project that will benefit both current and future students.

 

A Kirk Fenton CE Primary School Spokesperson said:

“It’s been fantastic to have such a big organisation coming to work with us. We had some excellent STEAM workshops and it was great to have the experts in their field come out and work with groups of children.

“Also, the work done on rail safety was so important and children can still recite some of the data on voltages and potential issues. Of course, the huge thing for us is the help we received in developing our forest school site, which has transformed what we can offer children and is going to make a difference for years to come.

“It’s difficult to describe in words just how beneficial this can be for a lot of students.”

 

The railway running right through the heart of communities between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York is being transformed as part of the multi-billion-pound Transpennine Route Upgrade. The line will become fully electrified, and stations are being upgraded to offer better accessibility and support faster, more frequent services on a cleaner, greener railway. This enhanced connectivity is set to unlock the North’s potential with a major boost to the economy.