Two regional sister titles have launched a bid to make their patch home to a new national rail body.

Reach plc weekly the Crewe Chronicle and its Cheshire Live companion website are calling on the UK Government to make Crewe the headquarters of Great British Railways.

It comes after the Department for Transport launched a competition on Saturday to find the town or city where the new body, that will oversee rail transport in Great Britain from 2023, will be based.

The Chronicle splashed on the ‘Destination Crewe’ campaign’s launch this morning, pictured below.

Cheshire Live senior editor Marc Waddington told HTFP: “Everyone’s thrown themselves into this great campaign against a very tight deadline.

“No-one who knows Crewe needs convincing why this is the right thing to do. Crewe is synonymous with railways, and that shouldn’t just be a thing people look back on fondly, it should be something people recognise as part of the town’s present and future.

“This is a great campaign that we think will really harness the pride people feel in the town’s railway heritage. We know that there is a huge online community with a real passion for this subject, and we want to use Cheshire Live’s power as the leading news site in Cheshire to bring people together behind this shared goal.

“It’s a great digital opportunity, but this campaign is also an excellent example of the way a strong local weekly paper can help lead the charge for its community and give a cause visibility on the newsstands.”

The competition, which will include bids from interested local authorities, will go to a public vote in May before a winning location is announced in the summer.