Take a slow journey by train, and go back to childhood memories of family train trips. The upcoming HS2 high speed rail project is disastrous already for our woodlands and wildlife, and will continue to kill around 22,000 wildlife each year once built, based on other high-speed train projects. The money would be better spent on upgrading present rolling stock, far more effective also to reduce climate change. .
- GO-OP! is asking for investments, to launch England’s first people-owned railway. The first route will be Taunton to Nuneaton.
- TrainGenius offers online tickets (accredited by National Rail and independent companies) that saves up to 80% of fares.
- Railcard offers discount cards (seniors, disabled travellers & carers, young people, veterans, couples).
- Londoners get discounts with Oyster Card. Disabled Londoners (and carers) get limited free taxi travel instead with Taxicard).
- Find in on train travel with disabilities & animals. Find info on taking dogs on trains at Blue Cross (they are not allowed on EuroStar, unless guide dogs).
- The Man in Seat 61 has useful info on how to travel anywhere in the world, without setting foot on a plane (sometimes obviously boats are involved).
- Make your own sarnies and take a reusable flask, to avoid having to pay for a £10 sandwich or £5 coffee.
- If you take bikes on trains, most folding bikes are expensive with leather saddles. ALDI Folding Bike is £300 (includes a pump, lights, bell and carry bag). It’s bulkier and heavier, but appears to be leather-free with good reviews.
- Britain From The Rails offers a window-gazer’s guide, to take in the charming Cotswold line (from Oxford to Hereford), the eccentric Jolly Fisherman Line (Lincolnshire) and a circular tour of East Anglia. You’ll also visit Scotland’s Borders Railway & the Far North Line.
- Great British Railways is by a couple who visited all the UK’s 2,563 railway stations in their debut book The Railway Adventures. This book for older children & young adults has chapters on trains, tickets, designs of stations & seats, bridges & viaducts, castles & historic sites & wildlife.
- InterRail offers 30 one-country passes or a multi-country pass, to explore Europe by train. Includes a free railway map.
