Chiltern Railway Walk

Length — 241km

I recall seeing old railway posters from the late 1940s, advertising Ramblers’ Returns out of Glasgow. The formula was simple: add the day-return fares from your home station to each end of your walk, and divide by two. Nowadays, an Oystercard takes the place of that idea within London, but perhaps it is something for National Rail to resurrect elsewhere. Think, for example, of an Offa’s Dyke ticket: the cost could be calculated based on fares from the home station to and from Chepstow and Prestatyn, but it would be valid for one journey to any station on (or with direct bus links to) the path, and one return from any such Dyke station back to the home station.

The next logical (ahem!) train of thought was to walk from station to station on one line, and I chose the Chiltern line from Marylebone towards High Wycombe and Birmingham.

The walk divides into four sections as below. The third section, between Princes Risborough and Leamington Spa, is significantly tougher than the rest, with longer distances and more hills. Indeed, the distances between stations at Haddenham and Bicester, and between Banbury and Leamington Spa, are so great that they have been split into two stages each, breaking the journey at the only practicable bus stop in each case. The section names are descriptive, and are not linked with political boundaries.

The total ascent is 2247m — that’s an ascent of Ben Nevis (Marylebone to Bicester North) plus two-thirds of another one (Bicester North to Moor Street).

Chiltern Railway Walk
London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street

• London — Marylebone to Denham (39.0km; 294m ascent)
• Chiltern Hills — Denham to Princes Risborough (42.2km; 610m ascent)
• Greater Oxfordshire — Princes Risborough to Leamington Spa (111.8km; 984m ascent)
• West Midlands — Leamington Spa to Birmingham Moor Street (47.7km; 321m ascent)

The route is gradually being re-walked, and up-to-date directions will be added as they are written.

The map links (like the directions, to be found in the document linked above) show the route plotted on a plain map: to see the maps plotted on Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps, you will need to take out a subscription. This is an absolute no-brainer bargain for any walker.

Full train details are, of course, available from Chiltern Railways.

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