Dwell time: The time a train spends at a scheduled stop without moving. Typically, this time is spent boarding or deboarding passengers, but it may also be spent waiting for traffic ahead to clear, or idling time in order to get back on schedule.

Dwell Time is a newspaper published by Platform 1 for the Pennistone Train Line in Yorkshire that seeks contributions concerning reflections on your own or someone else’s mental well-being. We are seeking drawings, illustrations, poetry and personal stories about real life, raw feelings and survival stories; more about the journeys more than the destinations.

The Penistone Line is a slow and scenic journey from Huddersfield to the steel city of Sheffield, through beautiful countryside and over Penistone Viaduct, plus a stop at Meadowhall shopping centre.

Almost 300 people died in suicide incidents on Britain’s railways in 2016/17, according to Office of Rail and Road figures, including on the Penistone Line. According the mental health charity Mind: Approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year. In England, 1 in 6 people report experiencing a common mental health problem (such as anxiety and depression) in any given week. 20.6 in 100 people have suicidal thoughts 6.7 in 100 people have suicide attempts and 7.3 in 100 people self-harm.

In response to ‘Dwell Time’ we travelled the whole of the Penistone Line. During this journey we took time to reflect, think and be in the moment. There was a clear resonance with the reflective surfaces that divided us from inside and out. This was then worked with as a metaphor for thinking and being, how we are both connected to the life around us, yet disconnected at the same time.