{"id":93969,"date":"2025-08-25T05:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T05:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/93969\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T05:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T05:50:09","slug":"new-walking-and-cycling-trail-unveiled-at-site-of-victorian-railway-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/93969\/","title":{"rendered":"New walking and cycling trail unveiled at site of Victorian railway station"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new cycling and walking trail has been unveiled at a former train station.<\/p>\n

The new section of the Centurion Way, in the South Downs National Park,<\/a> has seen the Singleton Station site\u00a0renovated and the current route extended northwards from West Dean, passing Singleton and ending near to Cucumber Farm.<\/p>\n

The improvements include almost 2km of new trail, two new entry and exit points, and around 1.5km of newly widened pathway alongside the A286 for pedestrians.<\/p>\n

The route will also have\u00a0education boards to tell the history of the railway line and signage will direct people to nearby\u00a0amenities, such as West Dean Gardens, Weald and Downland Living Museum and Singleton village.<\/p>\n

The refurbished Singleton station area of the route (Image: Sam Moore) Yesterday, the deputy lieutenant of West Sussex,<\/a> Simon Knight, was joined by Vanessa Rowlands, chairwoman of the National Park Authority, project partners and stakeholders, to officially unveil the new route to the public.<\/p>\n

The trail is intended for all to enjoy including family, dog walkers, mobility scooter users and wheelchair users.<\/p>\n

National park bosses\u00a0said there are also plans to extend the route further over the next few years.<\/p>\n

These include linking\u00a0Cocking Hill with the South Downs Way, providing a continuous route from Chichester and the Witterings.<\/p>\n

Singleton station before the refurbishment works (Image: Sam Moore) Additionally, to coincide with the new section opening, the original arch near to Bishop Luffa school was refurbished and reinstalled to welcome people to the trail at Chichester. The arch had to be taken down a decade ago and was rescued from storage.<\/p>\n

Mr Knight\u00a0said: \u201cThis marvellous addition of a new section of the Centurion Way has been achieved through remarkable collaboration initiated by the South Downs National Park Authority who have worked closely with landowners \u2013 The West Dean Estate, The National Trust and The Cowdray Estate – as well as West Dean and Singleton Parish Councils and the Friends of Centurion Way and Chichester Cycle Forum.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll involved are congratulated on this great new addition to the county\u2019s cycle network.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/p>\n

Ms Rowlands said: \u201cIt\u2019s so exciting to unveil this new section of the Centurion Way, giving people better access into the heart of the National Park with some amazing views along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love how these renovations pay homage to the incredible history of the site and give people more opportunities to connect with the biodiversity and natural beauty of the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a fantastic new section of the Centurion Way, linking up with train and bus connections, creating the opportunity for a sustainable, car-free day out in the National Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restored arch at the start of Centurion Way (Image: Sam Moore) Ian Graham, director of West Dean Estates, added: \u201cThis is an inspiring landscape, leading education and a home of creativity and sustainability.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe that just five years ago this station was disused but, thanks to a shared vision, teamwork, passion and determination from the whole project team, we\u2019ve demonstrated just what true partnership working can achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

To celebrate the opening, a small team from the national park will be based at Singleton Station this weekend from 10am to 2pm.<\/p>\n

They will be able to answer any questions and share ideas for days-out in the area and onward connections with the rights of way network.<\/p>\n

The public are encouraged to walk, cycle, or use public transport to visit the station as there is no car parking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new cycling and walking trail has been unveiled at a former train station. The new section of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,25260,69532,69533,69530,85,69534,69531],"class_list":["post-93969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-national-park","tag-sam-moore","tag-singleton-station","tag-south-downs-national-park","tag-sports","tag-the-centurion","tag-west-dean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}