Britain's passenger railway runs for some 10,000mls/16000km. A distance equivalent to twelve one-way trips between Folkestone, the south coast portal for the Channel Tunnel, and Scrabster, the ferry port for the Orkney Isles at the northern tip of Scotland.
Across the UK?s rail network there are 2,500 train stations, from grand metropolitan terminals to small country stops surrounded by green fields.
Of the more than 900 destinations we list, our pages detail transport links from London to some 250 of them, mostly long-distance. Connections with many more, including those served by regional branch lines, can be found by checking with the contacts shown across this site. National Rail, Traveline, Transport Direct will put you on the right lines. In our Going places destination stories spot, we cite local stopping trains too.
Since 1996 private companies have been responsible for running trains in the UK. Expect today to hear station announcements peppered with references to services run by Virgin Trains, Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), First ScotRail, South West Trains and a whole lot more. At the last count there were 22 train companies, though that does not include the multinational Eurostar that runs through the Channel Tunnel from London to Paris and Brussels.
Still, through all the change of recent years, the rail network has largely retained a consummate ability to show off Britain at its best.
Cutting recognisable swathes across Britain there are the branch lines that reach deep into picturesque pastoral Devon and Cornwall; across the Bristol Channel in Wales, the 120mls/196kms Heart of Wales Line that runs from Swansea to Shrewsbury on the English border; then there are the heroic heritage steam trains on the Severn Valley Railway in the English Midlands; the Cotswold Line that runs along the edge of this most English of rural locations.
Progressing north and the legendary Settle to Carlisle Line; cuts its way through the glorious, green slopes of the Yorkshire Dales; north-east over the Pennine Hills there?s the puffing presence of steam trains on the North York Moors; over the border into Scotland take the regular train service north out of Inverness which follows a winding track into the vastness of the Scottish Highlands and the distant ferry port of Scrabster; or, go west out of Inverness climbing over the Highland crags to fetch up, two-and-a-half hours later, at Kyle of Lochalsh, the one-time ferry port for the Isle of Skye. Today there is a bus (every half-hour) that runs over the bridge to Skye.
Of course, the key to opening up train travel is the ticket. We provide an outline introduction below.
to be concluded
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