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Our story, and our plans for the future
The Community Train CRP is a new Community Rail Partnership for southwest London. We operate in the south of the Royal Borough of Kingston and the southwest of the London Borough of Merton.
We currently cover nine stations served by South Western Railway trains from London Waterloo.
Our stations
Our story
The Community Brain has been in existence for over 15 years, operating in the south of the Royal Borough of Kingston, an area which sometimes gets overshadowed by a focus on Kingston in the north of the borough.
We work to engage local people and believe in giving them ‘permission’ to be brilliant because everyone can be brilliant if they are given the support and encouragement they need. This permission enables people to create the futures they want to see for themselves and that of their communities, on their own terms.
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Our experience in rail and community engagement
The Community Brain’s experience in rail started four years ago when we took on a vacant shop unit at Tolworth station, fully refurbishing it and turning it into a vibrant community hub we call “Baking Ideas”. The space includes a professionally-equipped community kitchen and meeting space and it is open to anyone who wants to use it.
Baking Ideas provides independent businesses and the wider community with new opportunities to learn and develop through workshops, skills exchanges, demonstrations, research and commercial activity. There is also a meeting space for up to 20 people.
That project brought us into closer contact with South Western Railway’s community rail manager and also Community Rail Network and led to us developing further ideas at Tolworth station in line with The Community Brain’s ethos.
We delivered the “Costa del Tol” in which we imported tonnes of sand to the station car park to create a temporary beach for local people to enjoy.
In February 2021, we commissioned artist WeAreSkyHigh to create a new mural for the station celebrating the wildlife that can be found in the nearby nature reserve. We have also developed a set of walking trail leaflets that promote exploration of the local area on foot, starting and finishing at railway stations.
In 2022 we celebrated the 50th anniversary of David Bowie performing for the first time as Ziggy Stardust at the Toby Jug pub in Tolworth with a series of events branded under the “Ziggy Returns” banner. We organised a battle of the bands in Tolworth station car park, worked with SWR and Network Rail to stage the first ever silent disco at a major London terminus station, and promoted a special history train linking Waterloo to Tolworth.
