Britain has 17,000km of disused railway. Less than 20% of it has been brought back into use.
The Grand Central Greenway is a research project exploring how Britain's forgotten railway lines could become a national network of greenways, connecting towns, villages and countryside for walking, wheeling and cycling.
A national network, hiding in plain sight.
Mapped as a whole, Britain's disused railways are not scattered fragments. They form coherent networks that once linked market towns, coasts and cities, and could do so again.
A national vision. The Midlands first.
The Midlands regional network is the project's testing ground. It is one of the most coherent networks of former railway in the country, running from the coasts of Lincolnshire and Norfolk to the rolling hills of the Cotswolds.
Joined up, it would create extraordinary opportunities for leisure, tourism and everyday local travel.
Most of the cost of these routes was paid for long ago. The question now is how good they could be.
New tools and methods to unlock the network.
Active travel planning usually starts from where people want to go. This project starts from what is already there, and imagines what it could become. It pairs an architect’s way of seeing place, history and possibility with world-leading spatial analysis at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), UCL.
Mapping what survives
Rebuilding the picture of the disused network: where the lines run, what is still standing, how the pieces connect and what is now there.
Unlocking delivery
Working with local authorities, landowners, funders and community groups to find the routes to finance, deliver, and to bring active travel investment to these corridors.
Building new tools
Developing methods to show which corridors matter most and what they could become, so investment maximises the opportunites of disused rail.
Reconnecting rural Britain.
In rural areas, a greenway is far more than a cycle path. It means the freedom to move between villages, towns and settlements on foot, by bike or by wheelchair, safely and on a route worth travelling.
It is also a major opportunity for rural diversification and growth: new visitors, business opportunities and infrstructure investment. Because the corridors already exist, a world-class network is achievable within existing budgets.
With the right evidence and the right vision, Britain's disused railways could become some of the best active travel infrastructure in the world.