The Settle-to-Carlisle rail route, sometimes labeled Britain’s most beautiful, is celebrating its 150th birthday with throwback £1.50 fares and a steam-hauled excursion this year.
The line, 72 miles long, links Cumbria, the Pennines, and the Yorkshire Dales by way of 14 tunnels and more than 20 viaducts. It opened in 1876, and was saved from closure in 1983 by an activist campaign. It now carries around a million passengers a year on Northern Railway trains.
Northern is helping along the celebration, and business, by offering thousands of the low-priced tickets over the coming months, although details haven’t been announced on how they will be distributed.
An enthusiast group, the Settle-Carlisle Railway Development Company, is planning its own celebration, with a May 25 charter train, hauled by a heritage steam locomotive, on the section from Carlisle to York with stops along the way, time in York, home of the national railway museum, and then a return trip to Carlisle. Tickets are on sale, click HERE for details.
Image: Ann Dallaway/Settle-Carlisle Railway
