The Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway has announced that they have won Large Visitor Attraction of the Year at Cumbria Tourism's Annual Awards.
The winners were announced on the 19th June black-tie event at Cartmel Racecourse. Almost four hundred guests gathered to celebrate at Cumbria's annual tourism ‘Oscars'.
This is the fourth significant accolade for the railway following hot on the heels of winning the British Coach Tourism Awards Heritage Railway Award, receiving the first Transport Trust ‘Red Wheel' Plaque in Cumbria and the innovative ‘Train from Spain' project in partnership with the Railway Preservation Society, recognised by a Heritage Railway Award.
The ‘Ratty' attracted 115,000 visitors last year and the railway is focused on constantly improving the customer experience. There have been a range of new developments launched at the Railway over the last 12 months including; Whillan Beck steam engine joining the fleet, a new combined ticket with fellow rail attraction The Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway, discounts for visitors arriving by Northern Rail's Cumbria Coastal line, introducing locally sourced produce and new menu in the café, creating a viewing platform in the Engineering workshop and commencing an upgrade programme to introduce more comfortable carriages.
With sustainability high on the agenda, it retained it Green Tourism Silver and Green at Heart Environmental accreditation, taking action to remove single-use plastics from the Railway's two cafés and signing up to the innovative national Refill campaign which highlights places to refill your reusable water bottle.
What did they say?
Lisa Braithwaite, Attraction Marketing Manager says:
‘We are absolutely delighted that Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway has been recognised with Cumbria Tourism's Large Visitor Attraction Award. The quality of visitor attractions in Cumbria is very high so it is a real achievement. We have been listening to our customers feedback and looking at how we can keep improving their experience, so they become lifelong supporters of the Railway.'
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That’s jolly good news
So I just like to congratulate the Award Winning Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway (whom I’ve still yet to hopefully visit ‘in-person’ one day) on winning the ”Large Visitor Attraction of the Year” Award(s) 2019 … Hope you lot win even more.
The R&ER is also the basis for the Arlesdale Railway in both The Railway Series books and now also in the Popular ”Thomas & Friends” television series too.