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Places FeaturesYou are in: Beds Herts and Bucks > Places > Places Features > New Wheels for Old!  Andy Knight Area Manager for SUSTRANS New Wheels for Old!Ian Pearce gets to travel one of his favourite railway lines at last... even if it's by bike Help playing audio/video My first memory of a train was seeing a small black steam engine with two crimson carriages flashing past the bottom of my grandfather's garden in Windmill Road, Luton.  It was the Great Northern branch from Dunstable to Luton and on to Welwyn and Hatfield. The engine was, I now know, an N7 tank with probably a Gresley articulated steel twin set in tow. By my trainspotting days the line was run by diesels, but to my regret I never travelled on it before it closed in 1965. Now though, forty-four years on, you can again travel some of line on foot or by bike!  The Upper Lea Valley cycleway is a joint venture between three local councils and has produced a cycleway between Luton Parkway and Harpenden. Much of the route follows the trackbed of my "little railway" through the trees along the edge of the Luton Hoo Estate. (The Midland Mainline was the "big railway"). There's still some work to do as not all the surfaces are metalled, but a magnificent new bridge has been built over the notoriously horrible B653 road. I've cycled this road myself and it is not for the faint-hearted. The hope is that the cycleway will be used by commuters as well as leisure users and it will improve safety for cyclists no end. It's not all silvan greenway though. Just like the railway, the route crosses over the East Hyde Sewage Works which is not without its own unique whiff. I've always wanted to live in a disused railway station, but I would not ever consider buying Luton Hoo station where I remember waiting to see one of the new diesels on a goods train. The route is part of National Cycle Network Route 6 which also includes Luton's delightful Riverside Walk and the Grand Union Canal towpath.  The line from Dunstable down to Stanbridgeford is now open to walkers, riders and cyclists while Dunstable to Luton Parkway is set to become the new guided busway, slow worms on Blows Down permitting. There's also the Ayot Greenway further down the line. So it will be possible to travel much of the route again. I'll just have to imagine the N7 wheezing along or sitting behind the driver on a Cravens DMU with panoramic view of the line ahead.... last updated: 24/08/2009 at 15:50 SEE ALSOYou are in: Beds Herts and Bucks > Places > Places Features > New Wheels for Old!
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