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 magazine, 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.”
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.
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. We’ve highlighted a handful in our ‘9 hostels easily reached by public transport’ blog…
Photo credit: RamblingTog / Adobe Stock
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