HRA broadens annual awards scope
THE Heritage Railway Association has announced five new opportunities for members to win major accolades.
New categories have been introduced for the HRA Annual Awards 2023, and modifications to existing ones, with the aim of ensuring that the awards will continue to recognise the very best work in the entire sector.
Top of the list is Railway of the Year, to be given to the railway, tramway or funicular railway that has achieved, and consistently demonstrated, excellence in visitor experience, business, safety and operations, teamwork and equality, preservation, restoration or engineering. It will recognise high quality within a whole organisation rather than one specific element.
Team of the Year will be presented to a specific group for excellence in their field. The team could be made up of staff or volunteers who work together regularly, or who have come together to deliver a specific project.
New honours
For the first time ever, construction and civil engineering projects will have their own category in the form of the Infrastructure Award. It will be given to an outstanding project that can demonstrate how it has supported the long-term viability or development of a railway or tramway.
The Rising Star award is intended to recognise innovation, new initiatives, and success by organisations that are fresh to the sector. The winner could be an individual, group of staff and volunteers, or an organisation that has been a HRA member for 10 years or less.
Finally, the Award for Business Innovation recognises creative income generation, new business models, fundraising initiatives, projects or schemes that have delivered benefits or substantial positive changes to the business activities of a line.
The existing Award for Diesel Locomotion now encompasses diesel and electric powered self-propelled vehicles, including locomotives, multiple units, railcars and trams. Also modified for 2023, the Award for Marketing and Communications covers all forms of communication, public relations, advertising and marketing activities in any format, including digital. The HRA Award for Environmental Innovation, which was new for 2022, will return, recognising the work being done to make heritage rail more sustainable.
The 2023 awards will now have a total of 11 categories. HRA chairman Brian Simpson said: “The heritage rail sector has evolved at a substantial pace over the last two or three years. We felt it was time to ensure that the awards could also evolve to better reflect the array of successful and high-quality work going on.
“Our 2022 awards saw more entries than ever before but also highlighted that we were not recognising some parts of the sector as well as we could. That’s why we’ve introduced a new category for infrastructure and why we’ve broadened the scope of some categories. And we’re doing more to recognise the wider picture with additions like the Railway of the Year category.
“I know how well heritage railways and tramways have been rising to the challenges of this sometimes painful post-Covid and post Brexit world. I hope these changes will allow us to celebrate the huge successes of the sector in its many forms.”
Entries for 2023 can be made at www.hra.uk.com. Winners will be announced at an awards evening in Birmingham on March 11.