Rail Walks is a new resource website encouraging people to use the railway to get walking — and you can help.
Think of all the stops on your last train journey. Those remote places where no one gets off, or those town stations that seem to appear out of nowhere after an hour of open countryside. And how often have you looked out at them and thought, “I’d like to come back and walk here one day”? Chances are, if you’re reading this blog, it’s happened quite a lot.
It’s an idea that also occurred to travel writer Steve Melia, who gave up his car 15 years ago and started plotting hiking routes that were accessible by public transport, often the train.
“Like most people, I thought you had to drive to reach deep, wild and remote countryside,” Steve says. “Some of my walks use buses; most use trains. That gave me the idea for a national network.”
Like most people, Steve used to think that you have to drive to reach interesting, beautiful remote places. Then he discovered how much of the country is walkable by public transport, particularly by rail. These are some of the walks done by Steve Melia, aka the Green Travel Writer, between railway stations around Bristol, where he lives. The purple and blue lines are day walks. The orange ones involved an overnight stay.
Railwalks.co.uk was formed when Steve met Daniel Raven-Ellison the founder of Slow Ways and Andy Stevenson, creator of Point2 Guides and whose research area is walking guide materials development at the University of Worcester.
Plenty of places are accessible by bus or train nowadays, so if you don’t drive that shouldn’t be a barrier for you if you’re wanting to go on an adventure. All it takes is a bit of planning, careful checking of timetables (we don’t want anyone getting stranded) and you can head out into the wild! Whether you’d prefer to explore the Peak District’s mighty Ethels, bag as many Wainwrights as you can in the Lake District, head into Eryri National Park or soak up the sun in convivial Cornwall, there’s only a train journey between you and somwhere new.
Then someone suggested he speak to Dan Raven-Ellison, the founder of Slow Ways, an initiative to create a national network of walking routes connecting all of the country’s towns and cities, as well as thousands of villages.
Building on the work that Slow Ways has already done, Rail Walks is building on that network to include more walks from train stations. This is where you come in. The project is looking for people to contribute walks that start and finish at a train station, either beginning or ending at the same rail stop or linking one with another.
“Some of the most beautiful and interesting walks start from unassuming places, the Wiltshire market towns, for example. You might not previously have thought ‘let’s go to Westbury or Melksham for a walk’, but what fantastic starting places they can be.”
During the research, Steve also found dozens of websites that already have walks plotted from rail stations. He’s since brought them together on the website as a resource, with the aim of having a single interactive map where you can find a walk anywhere in the country, no matter where you’re wanting to get to.
Rail Walks Objectives
- To encourage people to use the rail network for recreational walking.
- To make it easier for people to use the rail network for walking.
- To raise awareness about the usefulness and enjoyability of using the rail network for walking.
Rail Walks Mission Statement
To encourage people to use the rail network for recreational walking by showing them how easy and enjoyable is to do, and by providing materials to help them to do it.
Rail Walks Approach
- To collect and make as widely available as possible walks from railway stations.
- To create new walks from stations.
- To use both existing and new walks to create a national network.
One of our great selling points is the beautiful locations of our hostels, with a big number of our properties sitting close to train stations or within easy reach of public transport. We’ve highlighted a handful in our ‘9 hostels easily reached by public transport’ blog.
You could even catch the train and plan a hostel-to-hostel walk if you want a longer escapade! Many of our hostels can be linked via walks, train rides or even open-top buses so you can sit back and enjoy the view from every angle.
Photo credit: RamblingTog / Adobe Stock
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