WORCESTERSHIRE RAIL TRAILS PROJECT - MY WAY INTO 'RAILWALKS'.

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 created 100 miles of new routes alongside the county’s railways. The guide materials developed are free-to-download interactive .pdf files which you can print to A4 or view and explore on your smartphone (with ‘live helper links’ to train times etc). While the maps show stage by stage walking topography and directions they also still cover local places of interest or local flora or fauna and (as a nod to Mr Wainwright) utilise linked line illustrations too. For those who prefer to use these materials alongside their favourite walking apps on phones there’s also a downloadable .GPX file per sheet too.

You can try them for yourself if you wish, they're all free to download as .pdf files, just click on the link below to take you to the Worcestershire Rail Trails overview webpage or you can click directly on the link below to download each individual walk.

https://wcrp.org.uk/rail-trails/

Andy Stevenson

Point2 Guides

Comments

  1. Hello Andy,
    Do wcrp want alternative routes to supplement the ones they have? This seems to be what slow ways does, or should I try to put them into the allied railwalks?
    Was it you or someone else in your lot I met out reccying near Wolverley on Feb 17th who told me about wcrp?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi James, I think WCRP are possibly reaching the culmination of the Railwalks Worcs project now. the last tranche of walks in the wings that we're preparing are a sample set of 5x circular ones from key stations in the county's network. As such I'd recommend that you potentially add any new ones to the Railwalks facility here.

    It may well have been Lyndon Bracewell (Worcs Ramblers and Rail Trails) who you met while out the other time.

    Hope that helps and thanks for adding anything extra as and when able,

    Andy (Railwalks and Point2Guides.com)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My favourite walking station… Chesham

How I Started Walking by Rail

Walking by Rail – What About Delays and Cancellations?