Welcome to Rail Rambles!

Rail rambles are walks from railway stations in Wales and the border counties of England. The walks themselves are free to join (but of course you have to pay your rail fare!) Each walk is planned to be accessible by a day return rail journey from a number of main line and connecting stations. Rail fares are very reasonable and good value with many discounts available. You do not have to be a member of any organisation to join a walk. All you have to do is appear at the station from which the walk departs and make yourself known to one of the leaders.

At least two walks are arranged to take place every Saturday throughout the year and there is also a monthly Wednesday walk. The two walks offered on Saturdays differ in length: the plain vanilla walk is less than ten miles but might be quite demanding while the long walk is greater than ten miles. Descriptions of these walks may be seen by clicking on shorter and longer walks labels on the left. Wednesday walks might be of either kind and are included in the appropriate listings.

The terms 'strenuous' refer to a fast pace due to mileage or to the return train time or both;
'moderate' indicates one or two climbs and a steady pace; 'leisurely' means gentle climbs and
some level ground; "easy" means mostly level ground and a gentle pace. Walks are led by members of the Ramblers and are insured. Whilst every care will be taken to keep to the advertised programme, walks leaders reserve the right to make changes to suit weather conditions, the needs of the party or other unforeseen circumstances.

Most Rail Rambles are off-road in rural areas. Please have suitable footwear and clothing for the walk you intend to join, and bring some food and drink, even if the walk includes a pub or café break. Leaders may refuse to accept participants who in their opinion are inadequately equipped or unfit. When in doubt, contact the organisers or the walk leader in advance. For your own and others' safety please abide by any instructions issued by the walk leader. Though walking is inherently one of the safest outdoor activities, no activity is completely without risk and it is your responsibility to behave sensibly and to minimise the potential for accidents to occur.

Outward and return times from the walks destination stations are indicated in the programme details for each walk. Where appropriate, outbound departure times from main line connecting stations are also included. For details of departure times from other locations and connecting services, please telephone the enquiry number 08457 48 49 50 or visit nationalrail or arrivatrainswales. Time details may be subject to minor change. Walkers are strongly advised to check times of trains before travelling.The normal range of tickets can be used to travel to the walk start point. Where a walk returns from a different location, a ticket to the furthest point should be purchased. Discounted fares are available to holders of railcards. At the present time Arriva trains offer a 25% reduction to groups of three or more travellers.

Contacts

Its easy to get in touch with us by emailing name@railrambles.com where name is replaced by one of the first names below:

cheryl - programme production
chris - maps, routes
marion - coordination, printing etc
mike - webstuff

Rail rambles were first organised in 1989 by Alan Howard and have only continued because of the support of Arriva Trains Wales and Ramblers Cymru. Extracts from a magazine article describing the early days of rail ramblers is available from the menu button above.