A University of Worcester lecturer has played a key role in an innovative scheme to map Britain’s coastal railway and walking routes.
Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design, Andy Stevenson, is part of a group of volunteers who have been working to bring the project to life and get people out walking while also using the railways. The idea is to create a free resource that allows people to walk parts of the coast and get trains back, which could potentially be used to promote regional tourism.
The coastal walks project is now live on the Railwalks website and brings together lots of different people’s knowledge and resources. The website lists stations either on or adjacent to the coast of Britain in regions, with walking distances in between. It also contains linked files for walking apps that users can navigate by, allowing people to easily plan a day or more’s excursion.
“Railwalks is the first organisation in Britain to map out the regions of Britain where you can see the coastal railways, all the different stations and the linked coastal paths,” said Mr Stevenson.
“We’re in there early as an organisation and it’s an idea that has huge potential, it’s already starting to gain interest at a national level. There’s a huge push to grow sustainable tourism in Britain and our coastal railwalks project tallies neatly with that thinking. Knowing that there’s going to be a change, slowly but surely, in the way that people holiday, is fantastic.”
There are more than 250 stations around the coast of mainland Britain, offering 150 walks shorter than ten miles, and 200 walks shorter than 20 miles. Mr Stevenson has been lending his graphic design and mapping skills and helping to develop the most effective way to map key details. Since the trails went live, organisers have also had local feedback from their members and have been able to further update details on maps.
This groundbreaking project follows on from success on a similar project here in Worcestershire. Mr Stevenson and other local collaborators helped to create the Rail Trails Worcestershire project two years ago – a regional initiative that allowed people to walk between stations and get the train back, or vice versa.
In conversations with national walking organisation, Slow Ways, Mr Stevenson became involved with Railwalks, which aims to combine walking and rail use. As word has spread about the Railwalks project, it has grown in popularity, with thousands of people registering their interest in the organisation.
“For me it chimes with other areas of interest in my research,” said Mr Stevenson. “As a graphic designer, you would probably think I would be doing much more design of products, packaging or promoting things. I think what I’m doing here though is a really good example though of how graphic design today as a means of communication is a really broad church. It’s also a nice example for students in how we can take the core set of skills we teach and apply them in so many different ways across today’s modern creative industries.”
To find out more, visit the Railwalks’ coastal walks webpage at www.railwalks.co.uk/walks/coast.
For information on courses at University of Worcester visit www.worcester.ac.uk or for application enquiries telephone 01905 855111 or email [email protected]