it has long struck me that ever since the Beeching axe we smacked a gift horse in the mouth – ie allowed the selling-off and dereliction of thousands of miles of level, networked rural track that could have transformed Britain into a World -class destination for cycle-touring and stress-free commuting by cycle/pedelec?

I’ve thought that too. It would be nice (and would to me seem to have minimal impact on landowners given ho many old railway lines run) if all disuse railway line had become bridleway by default, then if local user groups or counsel wanted to mange them to make them “traffic free routes” and maintain them to a level to allow for easy commuting e/t/c that would be up to them but at least there would be a ROW.

There’s little bits near me in Cheshire. Not much tho.
Went up to Lancaster and there’s a lot more.
Does seem a great idea..

Perhaps we should enforce that now ?

Indeed but the appetite for cycling wasn’t what it is now was/is it.

Still some of the tracks have been and continue to be renovated into access for all (where my heart lies never mind bike’ists) and Meon Valley is a casing point.
What once was a train line running from Fareham upto Basingstoke got the chop under Beeching, leaving many villages in rural Hampshire on their own. Caused chaos in the farming community, where land workers couldn’t travel to work. Villages fell silent and Beeching sat on his fat arse sniggering.

However, counter to that 50yrs later, it has left a vast line that is now being converted to open access for all and providing recreation and entertainment and income to some of the Villages along the old route. Some of the older branches of the line too are now being used more by recreational users. This is causing a little angst between land “owners” and uses in that “owners” have been able to slowly but surely close off fields where the lines used to run. Now there are streams of folks walking and riding across open fields and through wooded forests along the old branch lines.

I’m happy for the change and adoption of open access once again. Access for all not just bike’ists like me.

Good thing or a bad thing then ? Hard one, hate the bloke an the Gov’t for forcing this through but counter now 50yrs later with rose tinted specs’ in that the villages affected haven’t changed much since, so we have picturesque landscapes, but economic chaos caused to rural families back then was totally unforgivable. Just because I can now ride along them doesn’t make the decision back then right.

We could start petition, and get absolutely no where…

Unfortunately in many places the lines becamse industrial estates or were sold to farmers or people who bought the old station houses.

Sustrans the cycling charity do re open a lot of old trackways for cyclists and walkerists, but it was the piecemeal sell off by the beeching mob that makes a buy baxck and reopeing of a lot physically difficult, then there is the cost of replacement bridges, and culevrts, a lot where destroyed.

One rail line that needs to be reopened is the one from Blaenau festiniog to Trawsfynydd lake, track still in place and going rusty.

Additionally, I always thought it may help regenerate rural business, ie campsites, B and Bs, local cafes, E-charging stations, events, tour guides, etc would crop up like mushrooms.

What first got me thinking beyond urban commuting (a lot of which are already in place but nowhere near enough) was the Welsh Marches/Powys area. A lost jewel imo, and massively suitable for that type of regeneration/sustainable tourism.

We could start petition, and get absolutely no where…

That’s the spirit!

A lot of the best Sustrans/NCN routes are old railway lines.

They make excellent cycle paths: nice width, not too hilly, already have bridges and tunnels, tend to go to useful places.

But buying these up would cost a LOT of money, so typically they are left in Local Authority control with Sustrans just doing what they can regarding signage, litter picking, cutting back overgrowth etc

They do make for a rather lovely stress-free commute:

I’ve thought that too. It would be nice (and would to me seem to have minimal impact on landowners given ho many old railway lines run) if all disuse railway line had become bridleway by default, then if local user groups or counsel wanted to mange them to make them “traffic free routes” and maintain them to a level to allow for easy commuting e/t/c that would be up to them but at least there would be a ROW.

Great idea, except have you considered the cost of maintaining these links – surface, bridges, tunnels etc?

There’s a couple near me; the Aberdeen to Banchory line is tarmacced a lot of the way, well maintained and popular with walkers and cyclists – handy to go for a cycle with the gf as it’s flat and scenic. There’s also the Dyce to Ellon railway line which is meant to be similar. Seeing how well the Banchory one works makes it a pity there’s not more lines like that around.

Great idea, except have you considered the cost of maintaining these links – surface, bridges, tunnels etc?

Roads are maintained using income tax, why not the same here?
A reasonable portion of my income tax is used to fund various things that I have no use for, so that can’t be used as an excuse.

In the North-East (England) I think pretty much every useful abandoned line has already been converted.

You can get a google earth layer showing all disused lines, good for potential exploring when combined with a bridleway layer. In the countryside old railways are often used by the farmers as access track so typically rideable even though not technically a BW (obviously caution and consideration required when near live stock).

Ive ridden a large amount of converted lines in Scotland too. One that comes to mind as possibly useful for BW conversion would have been the Edin-Gala line, but i understand thats going to be reinstated as a working line eventually anyway.

Great idea, except have you considered the cost of maintaining these links – surface, bridges, tunnels etc?

A lot of the bridges/tunnels will have roads going over/under them so they typically need to be maintained anyway.

The rest of the funds should come from the transport and recreation budgets, but sadly we are in a country where granting £90 million to spend between 8 cities is supposed to be a massive game-changing boost to cycling, but meantime we are happy to spend £138 million per mile for a bit of motorway in one city.

Great idea, except have you considered the cost of maintaining these links – surface, bridges, tunnels etc?

That is why I was suggesting ROW as a minimum and then a case by case basis if there is demand, local user groups e.t.c to develop / keep up to scratch. The biggest issue you list would be unsafe tunnels. Bridges can quite ofteb be a case of crossing a road if need or of one doe need to be built it doe not have to be up to tain strength

We could start petition, and get absolutely no where…
That’s the spirit!

I know its just there is a petition for everything and none of them make a difference.

There *was* a nice converted ex-railway line cycle path from Dalkeith up towards Edinburgh… I used to use it now and again for cycling in to the city.

They’ve only gone and turned it back into a railway!

Can it be that I’m the first to mention…

http://www.sustrans.org.uk

… who began with the Bath – Bristol railway path.

(edit) I think that some on here are trying to re-invent the wheel.

You can ride from Edinburgh to Stirling which is 40m and half of it is on old railway lines tarmac for cycling.

Can it be that I’m the first third to mention…

http://www.sustrans.org.uk

😀

First linky then, GS. And we’d agree that a few up there have never heard of them.

Can it be that I’m the first to mention…

http://www.sustrans.org.uk

Nope, GrahamS mentioned it. I was going to – mate of mine lives south of Oxford – there was a long stretch of sustrans route using old railway lines round there.
Down here there’s the Hayling Billy line – straight to the beach 🙂

Yes Sustrans were way ahead with their thinking back in 1977. First one I experienced was the short one in Cheltenham, but hopefully moving nearer the Tarka Trail soon and looking fwd to it!/being involved more (not least on account of better half benefiting from safe exercise/transit on recumbent trike)

Back to Sustrans – what are opinions on charity vs public funding here, taking a bigger picture?

There is a Wiki for UK Rail Trails don’t know how complete up-to-date it is. That could answer my how many miles ?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_trails#United_Kingdom

That Wiki link misses a huge amount of named trails, not to mention many miles of linking branches or un-named paths.

In the North-East (England) I think pretty much every useful abandoned line has already been converted.

Hmm, I’m not so sure about that, there’s a LOT of old wagon ways to the south of the Tyne that haven’t been,

The two things that bother me are that

1) the statutory powers to create routes for public benefit at there, but very rarely used, leading to very slow progress where one isolated landowner holds up a route for many years while authorities seek to negotiate

2) too many of the routes are permissive, rather than being denoted as bridleways and therefore ensuring access is maintained in perpetuity.

such short sightedness to allow building on, removal of bridges from and ploughing of these lines. Even if not for cycling they may well be other transport systems in the future that could make good use of them. UK in lack of forward thinking shocker.

Hmm, I’m not so sure about that, there’s a LOT of old wagon ways to the south of the Tyne that haven’t been,

Ah, wagonways are slightly different to railways. Wagonways tend to be shorter and likely abandoned long before beeching cuts. Be good to get access to them, but most south tyne tend to just go into the hills and not really link much together? Not really that knowledgeable on those tho. The wagonways north of Tynemouth have been converted as the area is flatter and they cut through towns and villages. Again goes back to my point, if they would be useful chances are they are already used, you dont tend get strips of abandoned land just sitting around 😆

Got me thinking about a wide/integrated trans-Devon/Cornwall route. Found this nice old poem: ‘me and the hobby-horse’ 🙂

Back to Sustrans – what are opinions on charity vs public funding here, taking a bigger picture?

It’s tricky.

In an ideal world* the local authorities would be doing everything that Sustrans does and much more – and it would be part of the basic transport policy, as well as health and recreation.

BUT… we all know what happens when Local Authorities put in “cycle facilities” on their own!

What I’d like to see is Local Authorities working with Sustrans as an experienced advisory group as well as ‘normal’ cyclists via local campaigns, CTC, cycle forums, bike user groups etc.

There are actually some signs of this happening in Newcastle, but progress is painfully slow and there are plenty of people who are opposed to it.

.

(* aka the Netherlands)

such short sightedness to allow building on, removal of bridges from and ploughing of these lines. Even if not for cycling they may well be other transport systems in the future that could make good use of them. UK in lack of forward thinking shocker.

Pretty sure the point of the beeching cut WAS due to forward thinking. Huge road building schemes and reduction in rail travel. Kind of difficult to predict what it would be like 50/60 years down the road, given where they were 50 year previous! Who would predict we would want the lines as leisure cycle routes!?

I ride to work and back along a cycle path on an old railway line (closed pre-Beeching though) and often reflect on how lucky I am as it’s an extremely pleasant journey which avoids very busy roads which I wouldn’t really fancy riding on a daily basis.

It would be amazing if there was a whole network of these routes up and down the country. I suppose it’s possible, but difficult. My local route only came about due to a lot of hard work/campaigning by volunteers.

My local route only came about due to a lot of hard work/campaigning by volunteers.

Yep. My local commute, pictured above, is fairly idyllic (in the summer at least).

Realising what a difference this route made to me (in terms of actively wanting to cycle to work) and my family (for having somewhere safe and pleasant to teach them to cycle) was the main reason I supported and later volunteered for Sustrans.

I want everyone to have access to routes like that.

Pretty sure the point of the beeching cut WAS due to forward thinking.

some forward thinking

@STATO – I think both North tyneside and Durham cc have been a lot more forward looking than Gateshead, certianly looking around Stanley out to and past consett you can see the use made of these routes over the past few years, and it’s noticeably different from west Gateshead around Chopwell, High Spen etc.

I don’t know if ownership is as much of an issue, I think most if the routes were assets of the coal companies, so taken on by NCB at nationalisation and then handed to the district councils in the sixties when much of the field was closed down.

Yeah, there is a bit of lack of effective organised cycle campaigning in Gateshead too, compared to the efforts of Newcastle Cycle Campaign, North Tyneside Cycle Campaign, Cycling Tynedale etc

Really ought to think about getting together some kind of map that shows all current rail paths that are

-Running/in use
-In development
-Earmarked for possible development

Glasgow to Balloch
North of the trossachs in Scotland uses lots of old railway
West Coast in Appin.
Edinburgh cycle routes.

This is worth a read. Interesting social history of the railways in the 20th century (no, really!) and argues powerfully that the network was in no way fit for purpose. But also that the politicans (tories and labour) were cataclismically incompetent 🙂

Sustrans produce (free or very cheap) maps of all their routes, but not sure if they are marked as ex-railway. Pretty obvious for many.

Kids learned to ride on the very well maintained one near Aylesbury and we ride the old Monmouth to Symmons Yat line most weekends. Amazing to think they built that one.. only way to reach SY I think back in the day.

Derbyshire has quite a few trails:
Monsal Trail
High Peak Trail
Tissington Trail
Five Pits Trail
Stockley Trail

http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/images/Derbyshire%20Cycle%20MapWEB_tcm44-19660.pdf

Ironically parts of the abandoned line near us are now SSSIs, so the recent attempt to get the Great Northern Greenway extended needed to take adjoining agricultural land!