First Ideas

While chatting with friends recently the conversation touched on unusual tours.  This reminded me of some unusual rail tours I tried, some years ago, just to see if they were feasible. These were all "steel wheel on steel rail" so included Underground, DLR and Tram. 

One, for example, was to travel into or out of all the London termini, another was to circumnavigate London on a zone 2-6 travelpass.  

That was 20 years ago, but it did get me thinking, once again, about the UK rail network...

  • How far could I travel in a week? 
  • In two weeks?  
  • Exclude anything repetitive like London to Inverness, returning by sleeper, seven times.   
  • How long it would take to circumnavigate mainland UK?  
Happily the current All Line Rover covers the entire UK, with a few minor exceptions, for 7 or 14 days.

So, how far can you travel by Network Rail in 14 days?

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August 2020

First I noted the major "extremities" of the UK that I should aim to visit, clockwise from London these are: Margate, Weymouth, Penzance, Fishguard, Holyhead, Stranraer, Oban, Mallaig, Kyle, Thurso, Aberdeen, Sunderland, Hull, Lowestoft.

Then, using nothing more accurate or sophisticated than Google Maps, I estimated the travel time between these points and approximate wait time when changing trains.  Result was:

Total travel time: 3days 17hrs

Total wait time: 2days

Total time: 5days 17hrs

Now, I'm not prepared to travel for more than 8 hours per day so the total elapsed time is 5days 17hrs x 3 = 17 days approx.

Using accurate train schedules is unlikely to reduce this by 3 days (and will take me a l-o-n-g time) so I need to define and refine my requirements of the rail tour.

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September 2020.  

I think it'll take 9 or 10 days so the 14-day ticket will leave a few days for me to relax and enjoy a few places I've not previously visited.

Now for the first pass of a detailed schedule... this could take quite a while, but here's the outline route:


I don't think I've ever been to Shrewsbury so maybe I'll spend an extra day there.  Also, I was at university in Dundee, when Queens was a college of St. Andrews, so it may be interesting to see how its changed in 50 years!  


Shrewsbury and Dundee, therefore, conveniently split the tour into three sections: 
  1. Section 1 is the South and Wales, 
  2. Section 2 is the Northwest and Scotland, 
  3. Section 3 is the Eastcoast.

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