We are sad to write that Carol Evans, our long-standing member and Chair of our group from 2015-2023 passed away earlier this year. Her funeral service was held at the Woodland Cemetery in Hope, Derbyshire

Carol joined the Chinley and Buxworth Transport Group (CBTG) in 2004 very soon after the group was set up and was instrumental in widening the agenda of the group, managing  to have CBTG recognised as the group representing Chinley station in the  High Peak and Hope Valley Community Rail Partnership (HPHVC) .

At HPHVCRP meetings Carol not only represented Chinley station but also the High Peak Community Volunteer Service. She was a tireless campaigner on our, as well as many others' behalf, and throughout her life she took a keen and active interest in political issues at national, regional and local level - at the same time as bringing up a family of 5 children!

Whilst action from the Department for Transport on funding improvements at Chinley station has been slow, Carol was quick to spot ways in which Chinley station's single platform could be made more pleasant. Along with others she successfully campaigned in 2011 for the construction of a proper passenger shelter at Chinley – without this campaign Chinley would have been stuck with little more than an open waiting area of similar proportions to a bus shelter.

In the mid 2010s Carol started the 'Herbs on the Line' initiative, establishing a variety of aromatic herbs in the planter that she organized, and which her grandchildren often helped maintain! The initiative was very successful, with a Northern train guard once commenting that the herbs made Chinley her favourite station on the Hope Valley line.

At CBTG it has been our good fortune to have had Carol's commitment, perseverance and determination - not to mention her good humour and equanimity - at our disposal for so long. Carol’s abiding priority was to make public transport fully accessible to all and her efforts over the years towards inclusive public transport have doubtless been a factor in the eventual recognition of the merits of Chinley's case in the DfT's May 2024 inclusion of Chinley station in its list of Access for All awards.

How appropriate therefore that Carol’s last resting place at Hope Cemetery is within sight and sound of the Hope Valley line on behalf of which she spent so much of her time campaigning for it to become accessible to all.

Carol's family were keen to have her social and political activism celebrated in one of the Guardian newsaper's 'Other Lives' obituaries and you can read more about Carol's life story here as related by her daughter Bec Evans and published in the Guardian on the 25th June 2025.