Railway 200, a campaign to celebrate 200 years of the modern railway, won the Outstanding Contribution to Tourism Award at last night’s VisitEngland Excellence Awards 2025, held in Brighton.
The awards highlight the very best of England’s outstanding tourism industry.
It was the first time this special award has been given for a campaign that is not yet completed, recognising the huge engagement programme last year, which created awareness of the bicentenary and triggered a large and varied national programme of events, activities and shared storytelling across the country.
Railway 200 is a cross-sector, partner-led campaign to explore rail’s past, present and future. A key goal is to attract more visitors to the UK’s heritage railways and encourage more people to travel by train.
The judges said that the award to Railway 200 was “in recognition of its valuable role in highlighting the importance of our railway heritage and rail travel to domestic and inbound tourism in England.”
The award is given each year by the VisitEngland Advisory Board to an individual, institution or collective that has contributed something special and unique to tourism in England. This year, the Advisory Board recognised the excellent planning, the commitment to partnership working and the sheer determination of the small team with a limited budget, who have worked tirelessly on this particular anniversary for over a year already.
Emma Roberts, programme manager for Railway 200, who collected the award, said: “The response to the bicentenary opportunity from across and beyond the rail industry has been amazing, and there’s more to come! This award is very welcome recognition of their immense contribution so far, in partnership with a small national team who I’m proud to manage.”
The 200th anniversary celebrations kicked off on New Year’s Day with a global Whistle-Up of 200 locomotives across five continents blowing horns and whistles to signal the start of Railway 200.
Subsequent highlights to date include a commemorative rail coin from The Royal Mint, a successful anniversary rail sale offering more than two million cut-price tickets, heritage railway galas and festivals, train namings, a global poll to choose the nation’s favourite railway artwork, and the launch of the nine-month S&DR200 festival in the North East of England commemorating the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825, a journey that changed the world forever.
Coming down the track is: the launch on 27 June of Inspiration, a unique exhibition train, which will criss-cross Britain for 12 months; The Greatest Gathering in Derby, presented by Alstom; the National Railway Museum’s 50th birthday and the Railway 200 @ Bluebell Railway Festival.
More than 630 activities and events have been registered so far on an interactive map on the Railway 200 website, and many others have taken place or are planned.