Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. It's Friday,

the very last day of May, so I thought I should get out and about and try to inspire some journeys

for you during the summer, which kind of officially begins tomorrow. I'm here in Cumbria

at a place called Kirby Stephen. That's actually a market town. I'm not in the market town itself.

I'm a good mile away and I'm at the railway station which can't really get any closer to the town itself

because of the difficulty of building railway lines in these marvellous landscapes.

I'm looking across to fels which are embroidered by dry stone wall.

I've seen about my millionth sheep since I began my journey nearly two hours ago.

That was in Leeds on the line that runs across the Pennines to Carlyle, almost on the Scottish border.

This is the Settled to Carlisle Railway Line,

although most people will be joining it in West Yorkshire's biggest city.

Leeds, I believe, I've paid £9.

Pretty good advance fare to get this far with Northern trains.

There aren't that many departuresures but those that do run are extremely

popular because this takes you through scenery and across viaducts, the like of which you are not

going to be able to enjoy by any other means of transport.

The line was one of the later intercity creations in the 19th century.

And since it depends on, I think, 19 different viaducts,

of which the most spectacular and the longest is the amazing ribblehead viaducts of which the most spectacular and the longest is the amazing

ribble head viaduct very close to where the river ribble rises of course it's very expensive

to maintain and even though it's a good diversionary route for the west Coast main line. It's one which they were going

to close down in 1989. But miraculously it was kept open. It now has all kinds of supporters

...