Railwalks.co.uk Blog

In the first of a series where people nominate their favourite train station for walking, Railwalks Steering Committee member Kieran Seale nominates Chesham, Buckinghamshire.   Chesham sits at the end of the Metropolitan line on London Underground.  With direct trains from stations such as Kings Cross and Liverpool Street, it is nevertheless the perfect place from which to start a country walk. Most importantly, of course, there are a lot of wonderful walks to do.  Chesham is at the heart of the Chilterns whose beautiful rolling hills are a walker's paradise.  You can be in open fields spotting red kites within minutes of getting off the train. Chesham is the start of the Chess Valley walking route which takes you along the beautiful chalk stream back towards London via other Metropolitan line stations like Chorleywood and Rickmansworth.  From Chesham you can walk to a variety of other stations too, including Amersham on the Metropolitan line, Great Missenden and Wendover on Chilte

We launched Railwalks.co.uk with a video explaining how easy it is to walk across most of Britain by public transport – and rail in particular. Our message was generally well-received, but a few people made comments like “that’s if the train turns up 😊”. That made me reflect: I have been doing this most weeks, often several times a week, for 15 years. I must have done over a thousand day-walks by rail. During all that time delays or cancellations have never caused me serious problems. So why the difference in perception?  Of course, a train cancellation (or a traffic jam) can cause a big problem if you need to be at a specific place by a certain time, but when I go walking, I set out with a different mindset. I may have a plan, but it’s always flexible. It’s easier now you can carry a map of the whole country on your phone. When our website is finished, with walks from most UK stations, it will be easier still.  To give an example, a couple of weeks ago, I was on a train which

By Andy Stevenson of Point2 Guides & The University of Worcester This initiative has been my link to getting involved with the wider 'Railwalks' project. Worcs Rail Trails has been a fantastic project to work on and has evolved further some of the walking materials 'template' ideas developed for Point 2 Guides but applied in a different manner alongside bespoke illustrations and more specific information related to Worcestershire. The core idea of the Worcestershire Rail Trails project has been to develop new walking routes and linked guide materials to work alongside the rail network in Worcestershire UK. The idea is that walkers can start at one of the stations and walk as much or as little as they wish between stations and then hop back to your start point again on the train. In this way you can do just part of a day’s walk or even a multi-day or long distance walk should you wish. The core project will be largely completed in Spring 2024 and it’ll then have c

15 years ago, I moved from a village in the Dartmoor National Park to Bristol city centre, for several reasons; one of them was to give up the car.   I have always loved spending time in the countryside: walking, cycling, photographing, looking for wildlife.   I wondered how much of that I would still be able to do after we moved.   Like most people, I probably assumed that it would be difficult to reach the deeper, more remote, more interesting countryside without driving.   I had never seen, heard or read anything to contradict that view. I can’t remember when I began walking between railway stations - I had walked much of the Southwest Coast Path that way - but I started doing it more regularly after we moved.    Whenever we move to a new place, I want to explore the area around it.   I generally prefer cycling with a club and walking alone, searching for that connection with nature which arrives in a flash of sunlight over a valley, or the sea, when there’s only the wind and wildli