National Cycle Network
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The National Cycle Network is a network of cycle routes in the United Kingdom.
The National Cycle Network was created by the charity Sustrans (Sustainable Transport), and aided by a £42.5 million National Lottery grant. In 2005 it was used for over 230-million trips.
Many routes hope to minimise contact with motor traffic, though 70% of them are on roads. In some cases the NCN uses pedestrian routes, disused railways, minor roads, canal towpaths, or traffic-calmed routes in towns and cities. Some places have more off-road paths than others - Stoke-on-Trent, for instance, uses canal towpaths and its old mineral/clay railway network to provide over 100 miles (160 km) of off-road paths through the city.
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[edit] Total national mileage
The original goal was to create 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of signed cycle routes by 2000, with 50% of these not being on roads, and all of it being "suitable for an unsupervised twelve year old." By mid 2000 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of route were signposted to an "interim" standard, and a new goal was then set to double that to 10,000 miles (16,000 km) by 2005. August 2005 saw the completion of that goal.
[edit] Numbering system
National Cycle Network routes beginning with numbers 1 to 6 are generally in England, while those beginning with 7 start in the far north of England and Scotland. Those beginning with 8 are generally in Wales, and 9 in Northern Ireland. The main routes have one digit (1 to 6 radiate clockwise from the south of England). Other NCN routes have two digits, starting with the number of the relevant main route.
There are also many regional routes, reaching smaller towns and cities within ten designated regions. Each region is divided into a maximum of 9 areas. Regional route numbers comprise the area number 1 to 9, followed by another digit. (An exception is in the Scottish Borders council area, where the regional routes are numbered 1 to 9.) This means that across the UK there could be 10 regional route 12s, for instance, as well as the national route 12. To reduce confusion, identically numbered areas in adjacent regions do not abut, and so routes with the same number are widely separated.
[edit] Signing
The network is signposted using a white bicycle symbol on a blue background, with a white route number in an inset box but no destination names or distances given. National Route numbers have a red background, Regional Route numbers have a blue background. The system of symbols is based on that used by the Danish Cycle Network.
[edit] Main routes
The main national routes are:
- NCR 1: Dover to Shetland Islands, along the east coast, via London, Edinburgh, John o' Groats and the Orkney Islands
- NCR 2: Dover to St Austell, along the south coast
- NCR 3: Bristol to Land's End, incorporating the West Country Way (via Chew Valley Lake) and the Cornish Way
- NCR 4: London to St David's, in West Wales, via Reading, Bath, Bristol, Newport, Caerphilly, Pontypridd, Swansea and Llanelli.
- NCR 5: Reading to Holyhead, via Birmingham, The Midlands and the North Wales coast
- NCR 6: Windsor to The Lake District, via Luton, Milton Keynes, Northampton and Derby, crossing the Pennine Cycleway
- NCR 7: Carlisle to Inverness via Glasgow
- NCR 8: Cardiff to Holyhead, through the heart of Wales. Also known as Lôn Las Cymru
- NCR 9: Belfast to Dublin (proposed)
The other national routes are:-
- NCR 11 - (Harlow - Cambridge - King's Lynn)
- NCR 12 - (Enfield) - Potters Bar - Letchworth - (Peterborough - Boston - Grimsby), also known as the Great North Way
- NCR 13 - (Hackney - Chelmsford - Hadleigh) - Thetford - Fakenham
- NCR 14 - (Barnard Castle -) Stockton-on-Tees - Hartlepool - Durham - Consett - South Shields
- NCR 15 - (Nottingham - Grantham - Sleaford)
- NCR 16 - (Basildon - Shoeburyness)
- NCR 17 - Rochester - Maidstone (- Ashford - Hythe)
- NCR 18 - Canterbury - Ashford - Tenterden - Tunbridge Wells
- NCR 20 - Crawley to Brighton
- NCR 21 - Greenwich - Lewisham - Crawley - East Grinstead - Heathfield - Eastbourne
- NCR 22 - Wandsworth - Carshalton (The Wandle Trail) (- Guildford - Farnham - Petersfield - Havant - Isle of Wight)
- NCR 23 - Reading - Basingstoke (- Alton - Eastleigh - Isle of Wight)
- NCR 24 - (Bath - Radstock - Frome (section also known as the Colliers Way) - Warminster - Salisbury - Eastleigh)
- NCR 25 - (Longleat - Gillingham - Poole)
- NCR 26 - (Clevedon - Wells -) Castle Cary - Yeovil - Dorchester
- NCR 27 - Ilfracombe - Plymouth; also known as the Devon Coast to Coast Cycle Route [1] & includes part of the Tarka Trail
- NCR 28 - (Okehampton - Newton Abbot -) Totnes - Salcombe
- NCR 32 - Bodmin - Truro, via Padstow and Newquay; part of the Cornish Way cycle route
- NCR 33 (Wessex Cycleway) - Pill - Clevedon - Weston-super-Mare - Bridgwater - Chard - Seaton
- NCR 41 - Bristol - Gloucester (- Stratford upon Avon -) Warwick - Leamington Spa - Rugby
- NCR 42 - Chepstow - Abergavenny - NCR 8 at Glasbury (an extension is proposed from Gloucester to Chepstow); part of Lôn Las Cymru
- NCR 43 - Swansea (- Builth Wells)
- NCR 45 - (Salisbury - Chester)
- NCR 46 - (Newport - Neath)
- NCR 47 - Newport - Fishguard, providing an inland alternative to the Celtic Trail cycle route
- NCR 48 - (Leicester - Bath)
- NCR 50 - (Maidenhead - Winslow)
- NCR 51 - Colchester - Harwich - Felixstowe - Cambridge - Bedford - Milton Keynes - Oxford)
- NCR 52 - (Stratford-upon-Avon - Loughborough)
- NCR 53 - (Peterborough - Lichfield)
- NCR 54 - (Stourport - Kidderminster - Dudley -) Lichfield - Derby
- NCR 55 - (Telford - Preston)
- NCR 56 - Chester - Liverpool, via Wallasey
- NCR 57 - (Cricklade - Oxford -) Thame - Princes Risborough - Chesham (-) Hemel Hempstead - Harpenden (- Welwyn Garden City)
- NCR 61 - Maidenhead - Uxbridge - Rickmansworth - Hatfield - Ware Note: Sustran's own web site is wrong and this is the full length of this route.
- NCR 62 - the Trans Pennine Trail, Southport - Selby
- NCR 63 - (Burton upon Trent -) Leicester - Oakham (-) Peterborough - Wisbech
- NCR 64 - Market Harborough - Melton Mowbray (-) Collingham - Lincoln
- NCR 65 - the White Rose cycle route, Hull - Middlesbrough
- NCR 66 - Beverley - York (-) Leeds (- Manchester)
- NCR 67 - Long Eaton - Heanor (-) Chesterfield - Leeds (-Northallerton)
- NCR 68 - the Pennine Cycleway running up the spine of England, Derby - Berwick-upon-Tweed
- NCR 69 - (Selby - Skipton)
- NCR 71 - White Rose route near Northallerton - Workington, via Appleby, Penrith and Whitehaven
- NCR 72 - (Kendal - Barrow-in-Furness - Whitehaven -) Silloth - Carlisle - Tynemouth (includes Hadrian's Cycleway)
- NCR 73 - (Newton Stewart - Stranraer), Arran, Kintyre
- NCR 74 - Gretna - Douglas (- Glasgow)
- NCR 75 - Gourock - Glasgow - Edinburgh; also known as the Clyde to Forth cycle route
- NCR 76 - Edinburgh - Callander
- NCR 77 - Dundee - Pitlochry, via Perth
- NCR 78 - Claonaig - Inverness (Great Glens Cycle Route)
- NCR 79 - (Boat of Garten - Spey Bay)
- NCR 81 - (Cardigan -) Shrewsbury - Telford (- Wolverhampton)
- NCR 82 - (Machynlleth - Llanwrtyd Wells)
- NCR 83 - (Llanwrtyd Wells - Ystradmeurig)
- NCR 84 - (Trawsfynydd - Chester)
- NCR 85 - (Llandegai -) Port Penrhyn - Bethesda - Ogwen Cottage (- Betws-y-Coed - Porthmadog)
- NCR 88 - (Cardiff - Bridgend)
- NCR 91 - Portadown - Tynan; includes a figure-of-eight based around Enniskillen known as the Kingfisher Trail
- NCR 92 - Enniskillen - Derry
- NCR 93 - (Newry - Ballycastle)
- NCR 94 - A circuit of Lough Neagh; also known as the Loughshore Trail
- NCR 95 - Tynan - Pettigo, via Lough Neagh and Newtownstewart.
- NCR 96 - Toome - Portglenone (- Coleraine)
(Sections planned or under development are shown in brackets.)
[edit] Other routes
Other parts of the network include:-
- The Nicky Line - Hemel Hempstead to Harpenden, on NCR 57.
- C2C - Whitehaven/Workington - Newcastle upon Tyne/Sunderland
- W2W - Walney Island - Sunderland, via North Yorkshire
- Taff Trail - Cardiff - Brecon
- Peterborough Green Wheel - A network of cycle routes around Peterborough, some of which constitute part of the National Cycle Network.
- Oxfordshire RCR 44 - Wantage (- Rutherford Appleton Laboratory & Harwell International Business Centre) - Didcot
- at Heathfield, East Sussex, the former railway trackbed is now named the Cuckoo Trail, part of the National Cycle Network.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Sustrans, 2002. The Official Guide To The National Cycle Network, 2nd ed. Italy: Canile & Turin. ISBN 1-901389-35-9.
[edit] External links
- Sustrans
- National Cycle Network
- Map: National Cycle Network 2008
- Alternative National Cycle Network map (using OpenStreetMap data), with partial coverage thus far but a more contemporary, draggable viewer
- GPS Cycle Routes Growing collection of UK cycle routes including online maps, elevation profiles and gps files for many of the National Cycle Network routes.
Websites covering parts of the Celtic Trail route 47 and the Taff Trail route 8
