Ten Things I Learned on the Coastal Railtrail

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 you might imagine as highly urbanised are oases of nature and wildlife, often hidden from the towns that surround them: Southend to Benfleet and Teignmouth to Torquay were like that.

Our coastline is interspersed with ancient sites.  Some of these, like Dover and Harlech castles, are well-known.  Others, like the Roman forts in Maryport and South Shields are unknown to most and waiting to be discovered.

In fact, the whole trail was a journey of discovery.  If you've ever wanted to explore more of the British coast, why not try some of the regional stretches? They vary from three days (Devon or Yorkshire) to 15 (Cumbria).  Just follow the links on our coastal pages.

 2) There are Big Advantages to Walking the Coast by Rail

We chose these eight stretches of coast because the stations are close enough to start and finish at a station each day.  So local people can walk these stretches one day at a time, whenever they choose.  If you want to walk a longer stretch, you can choose somewhere to stay for a few nights, and take the train to the start, and/or from the finish each day.

I knew that before I started, but I didn't realise how important it would prove be.  In many of the small towns and villages along the way, there was either no accommodation, or it was ridiculously expensive.  I mainly stayed in towns, where there's more choice of accommodation, easier access to food and more to do in the evenings.  But the biggest advantage only occurred to me when disaster nearly struck, because:

3) Long Distance Walking Stresses Your Tendons and Feet (and Shoes)

The distances on the Coastal Railtrail, averaging ten miles a day, maximum 19, were similar to the walks I do two or three times in a normal week.  I wasn't expecting anything different.  I have carried all my stuff in a rucksack on walking holidays in the past, but for how many days, over what distances, I can't remember.  

On Day 6, after a 15-mile walk carrying the full pack, I noticed my Achilles tendons clicking as I climbed the stairs to my room.  This was a warning: tendinopathy, inflammation of the tendons, can stop you walking for weeks.  It could destroy all my plans.  After reading about it, I did three things: bought heel lifts for my shoes, added a couple of exercises to my daily routine, and rearranged my accommodation for the rest of the trip, to minimise the need to carry the full pack.

This is the biggest advantage to walking between railway stations: you can stay in one place for several nights, carry a small day-bag on the walks, and carry all your stuff to your next accommodation by train on a rest day.  That's mostly what I did from then on.  I walked with the full pack a few times, on shorter days, and the tendons still clicked a bit, but those changes kept the problem at bay.

The same cannot be said for my shoes.  I have wide feet and a low ankle bone, which rules out 99% of the walking shoes on the market (advice from shops and other walkers doesn't really help, I have found; the only way to work these things out is through difficult experience).  These Altra Olympus 6 shoes are comfortable.  I had only worn them for a few weeks when I started the Railtrail, and this is what they looked like towards the end.  I asked Taunton Leisure, where I bought them, if they would expect shoes to wear out that quickly.  They said they would send them back for Altra to consider.  Altra's returns guidance (which they don't advertise) lists several exclusions, including: "deterioration after more than 400km".  That's 250 miles, or 25 average walks.  Do they really expect their products to wear out so quickly? Would they like that to be advertised more widely? I have sent them back, and we shall see.

4) Train Delays or Cancellations Rarely Disrupt Walking by Rail

People who don't use trains, or use them occasionally, often talk as if whole network is continually plagued by delays and cancellations.  If, like me, you use trains all the time, to go to different places on different lines all over the whole country, you may have wondered: why are their beliefs so exaggerated? There are social and psychological reasons for that, which we can't change, but on the Railtrail, I decided to record each trip, to find out: how often was my journey disrupted, and what difference did it make?

Over the two and a half months, I made 81 trips, some of them involving more than one train, on different lines serving every region and nation.  I encountered three delays, of 16, 21 and 35 minutes (the last one on the long journey home), and three cancellations, one of which was published in advance, for engineering works.

So that meant that 93% were on-time to within a few minutes.  That's the part that occasional users often forget, or ignore.  So how much inconvenience did those delays and cancellations cause? Almost none.  The most serious disruption, with rail replacement buses, was on a morning before a walk, where I went to a cafe and had an extra coffee, whilst watching progress on my rail app.  Another cancellation gave me an extra hour at a changeover station, which was enough to buy some food from a supermarket.  And if a walk starts 21 minutes later than scheduled, what difference does that make? (Have you ever tried to predict and record your arrival times by car?)

This is the key point we need to communicate.  If your train is cancelled on the way to a work meeting, that's a big problem, but if you use the railways for leisure walking, with a flexible attitude, delays or cancellations very rarely disrupt your day.

5) Routes Shown on Maps are Often Wrong

Earlier this year we mapped the coastal railway stations and distances between them, using OS maps and OutdoorActive.  I used them to plan my routes around the coast, often following one of the official coast paths, but sometimes deviating, particularly at the start and finish of each walk, heading towards the railway station.

However, reality on the ground often differs from what is shown on the map, and those differences can sometimes lead you down dead-ends, wasting time and effort.  I encountered several examples of that, particularly on the Cumbrian coast.  Recording specific station-to-station gpx tracks was one objective of the Coastal Railtrail.  I made the mistakes, so you don't have to!

I have amended the spreadsheets, and in some places we will need to make minor changes to the maps.

6) The England Coast Path Has Some Way to Go - and the Scottish Right to Roam has been Overhyped

The law which created the England Coast Path was passed in 2009, but progress on the ground has been glacial in some places.  The 2009 Act gave the authorities the power to create new rights of way, but they seem reluctant to use them.  The map on this webpage shows the stretches which are "open" or "in progress".  You might be forgiven for thinking that a green line on that official map means everything's fixed and you can freely walk it.  Not so, or not everywhere.  One of the worst examples is this one, between Bootle and Drigg in Cumbria. You can only follow the coast path by wading across the River Esk close to low-tide, which fortunately, I was able to do. 

One way another, I always found a way through, sometimes diverting inland, but sometimes on roads you would rather avoid.  In that example along the River Esk, the only realistic alternative, at mid or high tide, is to take the train, so describing the coast path as "open" is misleading.

Walkers in England tend to look enviously towards Scotland, where a legal 'right to roam' was created in 2003.  That was a big step forward, particularly for the highlands and mountainous areas, but there are many exceptions to that right.  It does not apply to cultivated areas.  Most of those are in the lowlands, where I was walking for the second time this year.  In some places, the situation is arguably worse than in England, where the density of footpaths is greater.  Even where the right to roam does apply, on grazing land, for example, your way might still be blocked by brambles or barbed wire.  In other places, big companies have been allowed to block public access, as at Burntisland Docks, where a local group is campaigning for the right of way to be restored.

Shortly before starting the Railtrail, I read the Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes, who advocates a right to roam for England.  Whilst I have some sympathy for his arguments, walking in Scotland has convinced me that a right to roam is not the right solution for densely-populated, intensely-farmed England.  We need a rationalised right of way network with joined-up routes, which keep walkers off dangerous roads.  To achieve that goal, we need authorities empowered to create new rights of way and override obstructive landowners.

7) The Coast is Crumbling - Walk it While We Still Can

The British coastline was receding for natural reasons, particularly in the South and East, before human activity began accelerating the process.  While I was walking, a new study was published, showing how the seas are rising faster here than elsewhere in the world.  How rapidly they will continue to rise, and coastlines continue to recede, will depend on global emissions, as explained by the British Geological Survey. 

Before the Railtrail, my experience of crumbling cliffs was mainly along the southwest coast path.  What I saw on the East Coast was noticeably worse: many of these cliffs are made of shale or other soft materials.  I also walked past houses and villages which are becoming increasingly vulnerable.  All of that filled me with mixed feelings.  I have spent much of my adult life trying to fight climate change, in different ways.  Using railways instead of driving or flying is one tiny step, but the coastal railways are also at risk.  If you are wondering whether and when to try any of these walks, do them now.  We know the direction of change, but how long these beautiful routes will last, is uncertain.

8) Rail Walking Attracts Certain Personality Types

It has been wonderful to walk with 26 of you over the past three months.  A couple of people have asked me about the demographics of our membership and I realised, we have never asked people things like age, occupational status etc.  Perhaps we should.  Many of the people I met on the Railtrail were retired, which is not surprising, as it was mostly on weekdays.  There were more younger people at our festival last year, which was over a long weekend.

I have also noticed certain personality traits amongst most of the people I walked with (me included), in addition to the love of the outdoors shared by all walkers.  I will call them the analysts and the organisers.  At the risk of sounding like a pop-psychologist:

• Analysts tend to work in jobs like IT, engineering or research, which need some mathematical ability, so they are unfazed by the complexity of rail networks and timetables.
• Organisers are often involved in running community groups or initiatives.  They push themselves outside of their comfort zones and don't give up easily when faced with obstacles.

Both of these types are more likely to plan their lives and their journeys than the average person. So it's easy to see why those people are attracted to walking by rail.  I have no idea how many analysts and organisers there are, but I am sure there are far more people who prefer convenience and an easy life, at least in their leisure time.  

We may never appeal to everyone, but we can shift the dial a little, to make walking by rail seem a bit more convenient, a bit less effort, than most people currently imagine.

9) Getting Stories into Local Media was Hard Work

Local newspapers may have declined in recent years but they are still an important source of local information online and on social media.  I have been talking to local media for many years and thought I knew how to write a press release to capture their attention.  I found a local angle for every region, and asked the other steering group members to comment on the wording.  In the first five regions, we got no response.  I wasn't even sure it was worth sending out the last three, but they were the ones that picked up the story, in East Scotland, Northeast England and Yorkshire.  The local radio station for the coast from Scarborough to Bridlington gave us the best coverage.

Perhaps the approach of summer holidays reduces the flow of news, and prompt some journalists to look for this type of story.

On social media, we agreed that I would post on Facebook, Andy would share on Instagram and Bluesky and Miriam on LinkedIn.  The Facebook Group grew from 1300 to 1600 over that time, and we know that some of those people were attracted by the Coastal Railtrail.  But if we want to achieve another big expansion, like the one we got from the Guardian article last year, we will need to think of some new tactics and some new messages.  

10) Trainsplit.com Saved Me a Lot of Money

Many people have asked us: why aren't the rail companies doing some of this work, or at least supporting it? A good question, which I am not sure I can answer, except to say that most of them don't seem to appreciate the potential.  There are a few exceptions: the Community Rail Network and Transport for Wales have been helpful, and we were delighted when Trainsplit.com agreed to sponsor the Coastal Railtrail, paying for the T-shirts and my travel.  Their Director Joe Sikker, bottom left, walked the first day with us.  He is a walker, himself, and clearly 'gets' what we are trying to achieve.

Over the three months, using their app became second nature and I will carry on using it in the future.  Unlike some other apps, they don't charge a commission, unless they are saving you money by splitting the fares (often without changing trains).  Sometimes that can save you quite a lot, sometimes it's better to go with the standard off-peak ticket, in which case you won't pay any more.  If you haven't tried ticket splitting yet, why not download their app and give it a try?

Joe, Steve and Sara on Southend Beach