Britain has 70 cities, and we are this close to having them all connected up via the Slow Ways intercity network
We believe that it ought to be possible to walk between any settlement and its neighbours. If you can drive between two places, or get the train, you sure should be able to walk well between them. Otherwise whether we use the routes or not, we effectively live on islands connected by tarmac or rails. That’s not what we want! So there are Slow Ways that connect every town and city and many, many large villages, and over 60% of them have been reviewed at least once.
But we’re going way beyond that. We need the routes to be verified – that’s three or more reviews for each Slow Way, that agree it’s a good route and worthy of being part of the network. Nearly 30% of Slow Ways have already been verified. That’s incredible! See the full progress map here.
So what’s the intercity network?
We’ve created a core network of routes that connect all of the cities of Great Britain to each other. These are the most populated places, and give us a good spread across the countries. There are 70 official cities in Scotland, Wales and England, and so far people in 40 of the cities can reach each other using only trusted, verified, triple-checked routes. We want to connect them all by the end of the summer. Can you help?
These intercity routes connect places as far apart as Plymouth, Cardiff, Brighton, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London. And there are many that are only a walk or two away from being connected – might you be the person to make the final link to Glasgow, Canterbury, Newcastle, Liverpool, Truro, Wrexham, Swansea, or many others?
Or maybe you’re up for a multi-day summer trail? Could you help with one of the outliers? St Davids in Pembrokeshire, Aberdeen, Inverness, Carlisle, would all be very memorable challenges!
Look at the map of the Intercity Network below. Purple routes are verified already, so you’re looking for the green gaps that need another review or two to be turned purple.
Check out the live progress of the core network on its waylist page. At time of writing it’s on 58% complete. Can you fill a gap? Let us know in the comments where you can target this summer.
Key gaps to fill to complete the intercity network
Not sure where to begin? Here is our priority gaps list as of the 15th of July 2024!
Bishop’s Stortford to Stansted Mountfitchet to Saffron Walden
Two routes here will connect much of East Anglia to London and the intercity network, including Cambridge and Ely:
https://beta.slowways.org/Route/Bissta/10751
https://beta.slowways.org/Route/Stasaf/8714
Shipley to Bradford
Two more reviews can connect Bradford to Leeds, Manchester and all the other close by cities:
https://beta.slowways.org/Route/Shibra/9641
Garston to Widnes
Just one more review here will connect Liverpool and Chester to the rest of the network!
https://beta.slowways.org/Route/Garwid/10724
Kilsyth to Bonnybridge
Help us connect Glasgow and Edinburgh with this nice central route:
https://beta.slowways.org/Route/Kilbon/6827
An option for the adventurous in the South West
Truro is close to being connected but we just need a verified route between Fowey and Looe. A suggested route has been drawn but no one has walked it yet…
And what’s a ‘complete’ intercity network?
A route is ‘verified’ when it has at least three positive reviews – at least three people have walked or wheeled it and believe it to be good enough to be part of the people’s National Walking Network! If you look at at verified route on the website you’ll be able to read at least three reviews about it, likely also with pictures, and probably travelled at different times of the year.
As the network becomes more and more verified each month, that’s more and more routes that people can feel confident to go out and try. What is emerging here is a ‘finished’ network that is a gamechanger for people who might not want to be part of the process of trying out untested walks, or tweaking ones that aren’t quite right, but who just want to go on a good walk!
Thank you for helping to make this a great big reality!
