Author Rob Ainsley shares some of Britain’s most remarkable rail and cycling routes
Trains and bikes go together like fish and chips, rhythm and blues, or Morecambe and Wise.
However, anyone who’s struggled to get their bike on a hook in those pesky bike cupboards on express services will know the train is often the joker of the two.
But when they work together, it can make for a memorable experience.
Cycling author Rob Ainsley has carefully selected 10 of the best routes in the UK, where you can ride first then relax on the train for the second section.
Most of these rail services are frequent and bike-friendly.
Heritage trains typically have cavernous old-fashioned guard’s vans for bikes (for a small fee), while national services take bikes for free (booking is usually required on inter-city trains).
Precise policies and prices vary by company, so check online before setting off.
With all of the trips that follow, there’s a bonus: the trains run almost parallel to each bike route, so you have flexibility to shorten your ride if you’re cycling in heavy rain, you suffer a mechanical or you’re in a mixed-motivation group.
So here are 10 of the best British train and bike rides, in no particular order. See you in the buffet car…
1. Kent Coast Line
Faversham – Dover: 60 miles by bike | 45/90 mins on the train
This is a coastal and almost entirely flat sightseeing parade of high-character towns. Part of the Cantii Way, this is a ride to take all day over and stop often.
Britain’s oldest brewer (Faversham); fresh seafood stalls (Whitstable); art galleries (the Turner at Margate); Dickensian staircased alleys (Broadstairs); castles and cliffs (Dover), there’s lots to take in.
Take a detour slightly south of Sandwich, near Ham village, for the celebrated direction sign saying ‘HAM SANDWICH’.
On the Southeastern train back, you can go inland (45 minutes) or back the way you came (90 minutes).
There are walk-on bike spaces on the train – you can’t take your bike on trains into London in the morning peak, but evenings are okay, and vice-versa out of London). Faversham is just over an hour’s train ride from central London.
2. West Somerset Railway
Taunton – Minehead: 25 miles by bike | 90 mins on the train
Britain’s longest heritage railway is a time-warp charmer, especially when steam trains are operating.
It runs for more than 20 miles alongside the Quantocks, between Bishops Lydeard and the seaside resort of Minehead, on the edge of Exmoor.
The complementary bike route is a laid-back trundle through rural West Somerset with a few mild climbs but lots of level stuff. It goes up from Bishops Lydeard into the Quantocks themselves on narrow lanes and then along a decent-ish gravel track with splendid views down over the west, and occasionally the east.
There’s a detour to Hurley Beacon’s panorama before a tarmac hurtle back down to the plains at Crowcombe and quiet roads again.
Snack at Watchet’s harbour market that inspired The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and head along the coast to Minehead’s expansive beach and dramatic headland (notorious Porlock Hill is just up the road).
Enjoy sandcastles, swims and ice creams before an afternoon train back to Bishops Lydeard.
3. Marches Line
Shrewsbury – Hereford: 70 miles by bike | 60 mins on the train
Wandering its way down the lush, hilly Wales-England border country from Chester to Newport, the Marches Line is a gentle gem of the railway network.
You could cycle along its whole course in three days, but this central section makes for a substantial day’s workout on cosy lanes, through sleepy villages and orchards (welcome to cider country).
Shrewsbury’s Victorian-class riverside has coffee kiosks to set you up for the lanes to the ‘Little Switzerland’ of Church Stretton and its surprisingly alpine climb over the Long Mynd’s moortops.
At foodie town Ludlow you can admire olde-Englande architecture from your restaurant window. After Leominster’s half-timbered satellite villages comes Hereford.
Take in the statue of composer Edward Elgar with his bike. Regular TfW trains back have walk-on bike spaces, but on Arriva Trains’ special ‘Gerald’ services the fine-dining theme continues: they claim Britain’s best onboard eating. Bon appétit…
4. North Wales Coast Line
Chester – Llandudno: 60 miles by bike | 60 mins on the train
‘The Welsh Lourdes’ (Holywell), San-Francisco-like trams (Llandudno), Britain’s smallest church (St Trillo’s at Rhos) and smallest house (at nearby Conwy), plus a smooth, 20-mile, car-free promenade to ride along: photo opportunities abound.
You’ll start from historic delight Chester, and the long, flat waterside stretch between Prestatyn and Llandudno, via Rhyl (with ‘bike hub’ cafe-shop) and Colwyn Bay, is perhaps Britain’s best seaside cycle route.
Its climax is the Great Orme headland, with stiff climbs and awesome views – and those trams.
Enjoy Llandudno’s faded Victorian elegance. Just be aware that the TfW train back (with walk-on bike spaces) can be packed.
5. Settle to Carlisle Line
Kirkby Stephen – Settle: 40 miles by bike | 45 mins on the train
The Settle to Carlisle railway line, forced through the Yorkshire Dales in which everything is a bridge, viaduct, cutting, tunnel or embankment, regularly tops lists of Britain’s most scenic train journeys.
Mighty Ribblehead Viaduct is a calendar-image staple; red squirrels scamper at lofty Garsdale Head station and Dentdale views amaze first-time passengers.
The ride is an eventful, vertically challenging, but visually delicious romp through the Dales and past the Three Peaks.
Easy, scenic B-road stuff gets you to the drama of Ribblehead. After vast Dentdale, you grapple with the infamous Coal Road that vaults the hills to Garsdale Head.
Relatively flat valley bottoms lead to rugged Kirkby Stephen. After that, savour your cinemascope National Rail train ride back to Settle.
6. North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Pickering – Whitby: 30 miles by bike | 120 mins on the train
The North Yorkshire Moors Railway scythes 20-odd miles between Whitby, Grosmont, Harry-Potter-station Goathland and Pickering.
It’s a time-travel experience, with period-film set stations, steam locomotives, jolly volunteer staff and unchanging landscapes (except perhaps for Fylingdales’ radar station).
The cycling’s all quiet remote lanes, climbing to purple moortop views, then descending to hidden green valleys. From Whitby, a riverside lane ducks under a huge viaduct before bounding over the hills to Grosmont.
A car-free road rises and falls to Beck Hole’s pub, untouched since the 1930s; in nearby Goathland (home of 1960s-set TV series Heartbeat), you’ll still be checking what year it is.
Remote-feeling tops get you to the market town Pickering. The last train back to Whitby harbour, and Britain’s best fish ‘n’ chips, is mid-afternoon.
7. Hope Valley Line
Sheffield – New Mills: 40 miles by bike | 50 mins on the train
The northern Peaks make for one of Britain’s most underrated ride-through ranges. It’s a natural sculpture park of gritty tors, ridges, peaks and troughs, and ‘how did they build that?’ heritage infrastructure.
You’re soon out of busy central Sheffield on a long straight climb onto the wild tops. Back lanes clamber through landscapes linked with Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and Robin Hood.
Test yourself on the side-plunge down, then back up Bamford Clough: Britain’s steepest signed tarmac climb, at 37 per cent.
Enjoy the wide splendour of Edale before a bizarre loop down Winnat’s Pass to Castleton, then back up and out via the shattered remains of the A625 on Mam Tor, the mountain that ate a trunk road.
Fuel up in New Mills, an industrial-heritage town, before your train ride, with walk-on bike spaces, to Sheffield.
8. Borders Line
Melrose – Edinburgh: 55 miles by bike | 60 mins on the train
A rare victory for rail fans over Dr Beeching, whose controversial ‘streamlining’ of the railways saw this line close in 1969, among countless others.
In 2015, the Borders Line reopened (from Edinburgh to Tweedbank).
Britain’s newest line passes rugged Arthur’s Seat before rolling across the Borders region, where the towns often still have a charmingly 1960s feel.
For dramatic pacing, this trip is best done out from Edinburgh Waverley on a morning train (walk-on bike spaces) and ridden back.
From Tweedbank lanes, go to Innerleithen, with its bike-friendly cafes, where a quiet, narrow B road rises up a valley.
You go through suburbs, sometimes on smooth bike paths, to sneak into Edinburgh from the east, past Duddingston Loch, round Arthur’s Seat then past the Scottish Parliament building.
9. Hadrian’s Wall Line
Carlisle – Newcastle: 70 miles by bike | 100 mins on the train
As coasts-to-coasts go, this ride – roughly following NCN72’s Hadrian’s Wall route – is pretty easy.
It’s mostly flat, only getting really lumpy round the areas of Once/Twice Brewed and Vindolanda, where the Wall itself is at its photogenic (and touristy) best.
There’s no Sycamore Gap tree now, of course, but the long downhill from there to Hexham on a straight, smooth, very quiet lane is a joy to experience.
You’ll also get Roman-border atmosphere aplenty, some fine scenery, hearty cafes, and visitable towns in the rugged, dark-stoned buildings of Carlisle, Haltwhistle and Hexham.
With two days available, you could do the whole Wall at leisure, starting at Bowness west of Carlisle, and finishing at Wallsend east of central Newcastle.
However you do it, that direction is best: those westerlies can be as robust as the views.
The train, being a Northern service, takes walk-on bikes. They’re usually flexible about theoretical maximums of two cycles; just as well, as you’ll probably be sharing this scenic and leisurely journey with C2C riders.
10. Highland Line
Fort William – Mallaig: 45 miles by bike | 85 mins on the train
This is not a regular service, in any sense: there are only a few trains a day, but it’s also unusually spectacular.
The epic viaduct at Glenfinnan features on £10 notes and in Harry Potter.
From start to finish, this is a full-scale visual experience of lochs, rivers, forests, glens and mountains.
Even better, it’s one of the most bike-friendly trains in Britain, with two dozen spaces (it’s free, but best to reserve a place beforehand).
The cycle ride, tracking the line pretty closely, is thrilling too, not vertiginous, though for several miles on an A road. In the Highlands, there’s often no alternative, but the traffic isn’t too bad.
Cycling up the coast to Mallaig has a pioneering feel – and you needn’t stop there because ferries run to Skye and other islands.
Gravel adventurers might fancy additionally riding the 45-mile rugged tracks of the West Highland Way between Tyndrum and Fort William the day before – that stretch of line is Britain’s remotest,
wildest train journey.