A SCHOOL railway project which resulted in 29 Padiham pupils forging friendships with children in Germany has been shortlisted for this year’s National Community Rail Awards.

The East Lancashire Community Rail Partnership’s Aachen Project has been shortlisted for this year’s awards in the education category.

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Last November a class of pupils from Padiham Green Primary School made the trip to Germany as part of the continuing Community Rail Lancashire Education Programme.

The journey from Padiham to Aachen actually started a few months earlier when Brian Haworth, community rail development officer with Community Rail Lancashire, visited Janet Ennis, deputy head teacher at Padiham Green, to see if she would like to involve her Year 4 class in the opening of the new Burnley Manchester Road Station.

The station opening had been designed to coincide with a Citizens’ Rail Partner’s meeting and pupils from Padiham Green Primary impressed an international audience with their knowledge of their local train network.

The deputy head teacher was due to represent the school at the awards ceremony yesterday evening in Torquay.

Speaking ahead of the ceremony, she said: “This has come about from the enthusiasm and talent of the pupils and the support they’ve had from Community Rail Lancashire.

“I will be really proud to represent the school at the awards.”

Citizens’ Rail has been a major funder of the new station at Burnley Manchester Road through the EU’s Interreg IVB programme. The new station building in Burnley was designed to provide an attractive and iconic gateway to the town itself.

Other improvements have also been carried out around the station to improve the comfort and facilities for passengers.

Citizens’ Rail consists of partners from across Europe comprising Lancashire and Devon and Cornwall in the UK; the city of Aachen, Germany; the town of Heerlen in Holland and Nantes in France.