Trans Pennine Trail comes of age

On Friday June 18, the famous Trail comes of age when five batons will be relayed along its length from Southport, Hornsea, York, Chesterfield and Leeds - all converging in Barnsley.

Local dignitaries, including MP John Healey, and officers will be on hand to meet the local route batons as they converge at the Old Moor Wetland Centre.

The southern route baton - running from Chesterfield to Barnsley - will be handed over from Sheffield to Rotherham at 10 am at the mini-roundabout on Thorpe Street/Barnsley Road in Thorpe Hesley.

A cyclist will then take the baton to Elsecar where it will be handed over to Barnsley in the Elsecar Heritage Centre car park at 12 noon.

At the same time the eastern route baton - running from Hornsea - and the York route baton - running from York to Barnsley, will converge at the Old Moor Wetland Centre at about 2.15 pm.

All the batons will arrive in Barnsley, where the TPT office is based, by Saturday, June 19. They will be transported to the Barnsley Football Ground on Sunday, June 20, for a 'Celebration Festival'.

The individual batons will take the forms of a small map tube containing a section of the whole TPT route map, with a space to record who has transported the baton through each area. These maps will then be buried in a time capsule in Barnsley after the celebration event.

The concept of the TPT first emerged in 1987 when a feasibility study proposed a long distance route predominantly using old railway lines.

In 1988, a meeting of interested parties was called by Barnsley Borough Council which resulted in a unique partnership of local authorities agreeing to work together to develop the route. 

The Trans Pennine Trail was formally launched with an inaugural walk and cycle ride in May 1989, between Southport and York.

Sections of the route were gradually developed as funding could be secured.  In 1997, the project secured £5.3m from the Millennium Commission to complete the route, which was officially opened on 13 September 2001.

Today the Trail runs for 215 miles from coast-to-coast allowing walkers, cyclists and horse riders to travel between Southport and Hornsea. A north-south route connects Leeds and Chesterfield and a spur to York means there are approximately 350 miles (560 km) of Trans Pennine Trail available to explore.

In the Rotherham area there are 73.5 km (45.6 miles) of Trans Pennine Trail. Of this, 34km (21 miles)  is pedestrian, 36km (22.4 miles) is a cycling route and 15.5km (9.6 miles) is equestrian. Only 16 per cent of the route through Rotherham is on adopted highway, mainly cycling sections, which makes Rotherham's TPT route 84 per cent traffic free.

The main route, running between Wath Road (near Old Moor) and Bolton-on-Dearne, is six kilometres long and is entirely multi-user. One of the aims of Rotherham's Rights of Way Improvement Plan is to encourage more use of the Trans Pennine Trail and the areas immediately surrounding it.

The Trans Pennine Trail is a key part of the National Cycle Network in the north of England. This is a network of 10,000 miles of walking and cycle routes across the country developed by Sustrans.