South Staffordshire Railway Walk — Attraction in South Staffordshire

the section from Wolverhampton down towards Himley is wonderful, it's wide sealed pathway with beautiful surrounding countryside and bird song and some interesting graffiti murals. There's a little café in Wombourne (platform) although it's got limited opening times - I didn't go in myself but it did look pretty good. there are a number of benches and litter bins spread out along this route and it's flat and suitable for regular shoes. a regular road bike would be able to cope but there are one or two little bits and mud but nothing that you stops you. The reason for just 3 stars is because the section from Himley south to Pensnett is pretty awful - the surrounding area is horrible and consists of mainly heavy industry quarries or scrap yards. There is also a travellers site there in which you've got to be careful of some noisy dogs and there's lots of fly tipping. the path itself is in terrible condition with lots of standing water and mud even on a warm sunny day in May - you can't get through this area without good walking boots and it would be impossible to cycle unless you had a really good mountain bike. so overall I've only given the walk 3 out of 5 stars but that's because it's an aggregation of the brilliant Wolverhampton to Wombourne section and the terrible Pensnett to...

Affectionately known (at least by me) as the Railway Walk, I’ve travelled its track since I was a boy.

Back in my rugby playing days, Sunday mornings often involved scrambling down the steep banks to retrieve a ball that had gone astray from an over ambitious kick. Those slopes felt much taller then though with my knees, climbing them would be just as challenging!

These days I’m older, less athletic, and perhaps a little more lethargic. But the Railway Walk still offers the same simple pleasure: a flat, easy path through the countryside around Wolverhampton.

This time, I coaxed the family onto their bikes. We parked up at Wombourne, by the Platform Café (yes, we stopped for cake!), and set off at the gentle pace dictated by our youngest wheel's little legs. About 40 minutes later we reached Castlecroft, before looping back for well-earned refreshments.

Along the way we had a brilliant surprise – a chance encounter with the friendliest graffiti artist we’ve ever met, who took time to chat about his work. A reminder that even on the most familiar paths, you can stumble across something new.

A lovely little route – part nostalgia, part discovery – and always...

Lovely walk however cafe staff gave me the wrong change by £10! They had switched the coffee machines off at 2pm and appeared visibly irritated at customers being around. They were ushering customers out and warning them that they couldn’t sit for long outside as they’d want to be cleaning. Because of the pre-occupation of wanting customer gone, the lady gave me £7 change rather than £17 change- that is a lot of money to lose out on and I did not realise until it was too late.

I could understand if it was 4pm and near the end of the day but the customer service felt non existent. They were so visibly rushing to get home and consequently made me feel bad for even being there. Disappointed and out of...