A British railway station can be many things. A place full of well-kept flowers and toy town paints. A crowd of closed ticket booths and overpriced cakes. An end point, a meeting point, an escape hatch. It can be heart-lifting or boring, drown in birdsong or offend commuters. It can also be the starting point for a properly good walk.
National Rail operates 2,593 stations, whose locations are scattered across the map like cartographic confetti. Many are located directly on long-standing hiking trails or a short distance away from trails worth exploring. In many cases, it is possible to walk between two stations following the rights of way, making a car or taxi unnecessary.
Such routes are often scenic but often little known and value the possibility of a dedicated database of walks from station to station. Could coming ashore at Ffairfach, Whatstandwell or Crianlarich be the passport to your next walk? This is probably where the recently launched Railwalks.co.uk comes into play. Its goal is to create a crowdsourced national network of rail-based walking routes, mostly ranging from 2 to 20 miles.
You can walk to almost anywhere in England and most of Wales and Scotland by train.
Steve Melia
Academic, author and one-time founder Steve Melia says: “If you had asked me 20 years ago how much of Britain you could walk using public transport, I, like everyone else, would have imagined it wouldn’t be much.” Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate who gave up flying in 2005 and driving in 2009. “I discovered that this is not true. You can reach almost anywhere in England by train, bus, but mainly trains – and much of Wales and Scotland on foot.”
I meet Steve near the station in the Wiltshire town of Bradford-on-Avon, from where we set off on a nine-mile countryside walk to Bath Spa station. It’s one of the truly beautiful first days of spring, a breeze-free morning of sunshine and plum blossoms. Twenty-four hours ago we would have been drenched, but today the sky is deep blue, blackbirds are flying and dandelions are dazzling. We go to the banks of the Kennet & Avon canal, head west and start.
Steve first had the idea for the website, which launched in January in partnership with like-minded walking organization Slow Ways, when he moved to Bristol in 2009 to teach transport and planning at the University of the West of England. “I started taking public transport walks every weekend,” he says, as the canal path takes us past narrowboats and forget-me-nots. Wavy-tailed terriers zigzag the other way. “I like to walk somewhere different every time I go out, and the fact that I’ve been able to do this for 15 years and still find new routes makes me think there’s more to this than people realize.”
We soon reach a path passing through open fields. A herd of Friesian cows graze in the middle distance. The route we followed is one that Steve plotted (he’s someone who likes to study paper maps) and then uploaded it online as a GPX file (available here ). He is one of four volunteers who run Railwalks, an umbrella website that aggregates relevant regional web pages listing local rail-based walks. These include a wide range of sources (with varying levels of detail), from walking and community groups to local authorities and individuals like Steve. Its collection of walks near Bristol (greentravelwriter.co.uk/rail) sits alongside other day walking routes everywhere from the South Downs to the Scottish Highlands.
But this is just the beginning. By partnering with Slow Ways, which is in the midst of creating a network of walking routes connecting all of Britain’s towns, cities and national parks, Railwalks aims to eventually deliver a comprehensive, searchable, national rail walking network, a mix of walking routes from station to station. station paths and circular walks. And like Slow Ways itself, it needs your help.
There are few simpler pleasures than wandering the country with a trail at your feet and hours at your disposal
“We are asking people to add new walks,” says Steve. This involves signing up to Slow Ways via the Railwalks website or changing the profile settings of those already registered to Slow Ways to include Railwalks (instructions for both options can be found at Railwalks.co.uk/how-to-help). “The goal is for our network to eventually go into a separate part of the Slow Ways site,” says Steve.
The concept at its core is admirable. There are few simpler pleasures than having a trail at your feet and hours of cross-country rambling at your disposal. Our route to Bath winds up and down through the hills. We pass through beautiful limestone villages with old-world names such as Avoncliff, Limpley Stoke, Monkton Combe, and stop at the 16th-century Freshford Inn for liquid sustenance. On the way, the sounds of wrens and the smell of wild garlic linger on the edges of the forest.
Steve admits that relying solely on trains can create problems for walkers, especially cost, but he and his fellow volunteers are passionate about spreading the word that rail-based walks can be not only feasible but also hugely enjoyable.
Now in his early 60s, Steve goes for walks whenever he can. As we descend a long, green meadow towards Bath, the city’s Georgian crescents glistening in the afternoon sun, I notice his boots. They look as if they are carrying the dust of a ten-year pilgrimage, and I say that fact. “What, these?” Laughs. “I only got them a few months ago.”
Three of Steve Melia’s favorite station-to-station walks
Torquay to Teignmouth, Devon
Distance: about 12 miles.
We follow a section of the South West Coast Path along stunning views of the Devon coastline.
Cynghordy to Llandovery, Carmarthenshire
Distance: about 7 miles.
An undulating route between two stations on the Heart of Wales line ends in the market town of Llandovery.
Bempton to Filey, Yorkshire coast
Distance: about 10 miles.
A clifftop walk along the North Yorkshire Coast offering the chance to spot breeding seabirds on Bempton Cliffs in spring.
railways.co.uk