Railwalks.co.uk Blog

Our recent survey reveals important insights into who we are and what we value.  Thanks to the 80 of you filled it in.   The majority of our supporters are  66 or over and retired.   That is not surprising - retired people have more time to go walking (and also to fill in questionnaires so there may be some bias) but it presents us with a challenge.  We could organise activities during the week for most of our supporters, but we wouldn't want to exclude people of working age.  Our festival last year, which ran from Saturday to Tuesday, was attended by people of all ages. Most of you live within walking distance of a railway station . This profile highlights a community with time and local accessibility. We found that 92% are primarily interested in following the walks published on the website , with nearly half also keen on joining guided walks . This confirms the value of our online content and the demand for organized events. When navigating, member...

Between May and July 2025, founder member Steve Melia walked the Coastal Railtrail : 600 miles, along eight stretches of the coast, best-served by rail in each region and nation of Britain. He was joined by 26 other Railwalks supporters at different points and sponsored by Trainsplit.com .  Here are some of the things he learned along the way. 1) The Best Coastal Walks Are Often Unexpected Amongst the  eight best walks I chose along the Coastal Railtrail, some are well known.  Others were quite unexpected.  Three of the regions I walked through were former mining areas, where coastlines were ravaged by dumping and pollution until only a few years ago.  There has been widespread restoration, and mother nature has done the rest.  The coast of Durham stands out in this respect: it won a European award , I discovered later.  The walk I have chosen for the Northeast, Horden to Seaham, where I took the photo above, is a great example.  Other places yo...

  After ten days of walking  the Coastal Railtrail .(plus rest days) I wanted to make a few reflections on the walk so far.  I have been writing about each individual walk on our Facebook Group , (and recording gpx files for our coastal pages) but I wanted to make some more general observations. One thing that has struck me is how different the first sections, along the Thames Estuary, are from what I know is to come.  It is largely flat, all marked by human activity, but not as urbanised as you might imagine, considering its proximity to London.  I have been treated to some fantastic displays of wildlife, particularly birds, which thrive along these shores, despite everything that humans throw at them. That proximity to London makes it easy to walk here by rail, because the network is so dense, although the frequencies vary considerably.  The line serving Southend-on-Sea was very frequent, whereas here on the North Kent coast, many of the suburban stations...

Press Release On May 7 th , starting from Shoeburyness station at 10am, some Railwalks supporters will be starting a 600-mile walk around eight stretches of the coast, which are well-served by rail, as described on our website .    Railwalks.co.uk has mapped the coast of Britain, revealing hundreds of spectacular coastal walks available between railway stations.    The walk is one of many events commemorating the 200 th anniversary of the railways this year.   Day One will be a flat and gentle 6-mile walk from Shoeburyness to Southend Central.   Everyone is invited to join – just turn up outside Shoeburyness station for a 10am start. Railwalks.co.uk was set up by a group of walkers last year, to encourage walking from and between railway stations.   Following this article in The Guardian , they now have 3,000 supporters across the country.   One of their founder members, Andy Stevenson, designed the coastal maps which gave them the idea to wa...