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High Cup Nick, walks in the northern dales starting at Appleby Station.

Ana Cross on the North York Moors, subject of coach walks catering for all grades of walkers.

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This page gives the latest news that may affect any of our activities - such as additional events, website updates, changes to our published programme, or problems with the trains we are using.

News items are retained on this page for up to 6 months, but may be removed/updated earlier than this, depending on their relevance. All older and removed items can still be viewed in the News Archives (see link below)

QUICK LINKS -

 

If you need to contact us with enquiries, particularly about our events, please use our new email address
enquiries@friendsofdalesrail.org
This is monitored by the Events Secretary (Diane) and the Website Editor (Philip) who will reply as soon as possible

Walkers are reminded that train services can be affected by short-notice timetable changes and cancellations, so you are advised to re-check train running times as close as possible to your intended time of travel.

 

9 February 2025 - Train walk updates for Saturday 15 February - Reminder

BLUBBERHOUSES TO HARROGATE (MODERATE) WALK

This walk will now be from the 08.29 Leeds to Harrogate train, as the departure time of the bus from Harrogate has now changed to 09.35.

STANBURY TO LANESHAW BRIDGE (EASY) WALK

Information from the leaders (Alan and Lynn):

We will be catching the B1 bus from Keighley bus station at 10.25. This is based on using the 09.20 Carlisle train from Leeds and getting off at Keighley. We will catch the M4 bus back to Keighley from Laneshaw Bridge. They run on the half hour and hour.


4 February 2025 - Unlimited rail travel with Northern Rail for £10 per person for a day or £17.50 for a weekend

Northern Rail has teamed up with Reach PLC and National World newspaper groups for this special offer, which includes a day's travel anywhere on the Northern Rail Network for £10 (£5 for children, no further discounts). A weekend ticket for £17.50 (£8.75 for children) is also available. The offer is not limited to the Settle-Carlisle line, but it is restricted to services operated by Northern Rail.

To qualify you have to collect either TWO tokens from qualifying Reach PLC newspapers or THREE tokens from qualifying National World newspapers. They publish a number of titles in Northern England. Please see the Northern Rail website for the full list of titles and details of when the tokens will be published in each paper.

You then need to download a form on the Northern Rail website which will then allow you to buy up to four Northern Rail Day Ranger tickets from any staffed rail station within the Northern Network. These Ranger tickets cannot be bought on trains or online.

The offer runs from Monday 10 February to Thursday 20 March 2025 and is valid every day during this special offer period.

Full details of the Reach PLC offer

Full details of the National World offer


3 February 2025 (updated item)

Friends of DalesRail will celebrate the 45th year anniversary of the formation of the society on 5 July 2025 with a series of walks and a celebration meal for members at Hellifield Station Cafe. Further information and details of how to book will be available in a future edition of the members' newsletter. Walk details can be seen in the Train Walks section.


27 January 2025

Please send any items for inclusion in the next members' newsletter to the editor, Fiona Robertson, as soon as possible, but no later than 14 February 2025.


26 January 2025

The members' youth hostel weekend will take place at Whitby YHA, North Yorkshire from 5 to 7 September 2025. Further details and booking information will be in the next members' newsletter.


29 December 2024 (updated item)

Our programme of guided train walks for the public for the whole of 2025 can now be seen in the Train Walks section.


15 December 2024

The new rail timetable starts today and is valid up to 17 May 2025.


26 November 2024

On Sunday 24 November, the Annual General Meeting was held in Skipton with 45 attendees. Further details will be published in the New Year members' newsletter.


8 November 2024

The Dales Railcard Winter Offer is back from 4 November 2024 until 13 April 2025.

It offers holders of Dales Railcards a 50% saving off the usual price of Off-Peak Day Return tickets on the Leeds to Carlisle via Settle, and Leeds – Lancaster/Morecambe via Bentham routes.

Full details of the offer can be found on the Northern Rail website.


3 November 2024

The online version of our October 2024 members' newsletter can now be viewed in the Newsletter section.


27 October 2024

The 2025 programme of Lake District walks can now be seen in the Members section.

A further members' holiday has been arranged for next year:

Plas y Brenin, Capel Curig, North Wales - 17 to 20 October 2025 (3 nights)

Please see the Holidays section for further information. Booking details will be in future editions of the members' newsletter.

14 October 2024

A selection of photos from the recent members' holiday in Bollington, Cheshire, can be accessed via the Past Events (Holidays 2024) section.

13 October 2024

The 2025 programme of Thursday walks can now be seen in the Members section.

6 October 2024

The October 2024 members' newsletter has now been distributed to members by post and email - the online edition will be available here in due course. Please send any items for inclusion in the next newsletter (New Year 2025) to the editor, Fiona Robertson, as soon as possible.

27 July 2024 - Events update 2025 (updated item)

Two members' holidays have now been arranged for next year:

Ullswater, Patterdale Hotel - 16 to 21 March 2025 (5 nights)

Dumfries, Holiday Inn - 8 to 14 June 2025 (6 nights)

Please see the Holidays section for further information. Booking details are in the October 2024 members' newsletter.

14 November 2023

Selected issues of our members' newsletter from 2020 to 2023 can now be viewed in the Newsletter section. The online versions do not contain all the information from the regular editions, which are sent out to members, as some content is restricted to members only.

13 September 2023

For 2023-24, membership of Friends of DalesRail is now increased to £12 per household per annum. For any members joining between now and the end of November this year, the annual membership will run until 30 November 2024.

17 January 2023 (updated item)

Anyone interested in joining us can now become a member online, by filling in our New membership application form. New membership subscriptions, as well as renewals, can now also be paid online. Please see our Join page for full details.

 

News Archives (Microsoft Word documents)